Worlds Apart
by Chiharu-Chan
Summary: AU. CH7. Twin brother separated from Heaven and Hell, one justice fairy, one council member, one freelance assassin, a pack of bounty hunters on the loose and an adventure to the North to regain their story. HaoMacchi YohAnna RenHoro
1. 1

If you're reading this chapter and had just begun to read **Worlds Apart**, I feel obligated to inform you that this is actually the second draft of the story. The original chapter was written around the summer of 2004 and needed much editing. A lot of time and effort has gone into the writing of this story, and to be honest, **Worlds Apart** is actually my favorite project to work on. As time went on, I began to reread the old chapters. Yes, it's hard to read something with so many grammar errors in it, ne? XD; Basically, I'll stop ranting to present you with the newly beta-ed version of **Worlds Apart**.

Chiharu. Jan 2006

* * *

Shaman King is copyrighted to Takei, Shounen Jump, TV Tokyo, 4KIDs entertainment, etc.

**Worlds Apart**

by: Chiharu

* * *

When Matisse Matilda was young, her mother told her stories during the night. It was to somewhat help her fall asleep, but also to inform her of the truth.

After all, she was a Justice Fairy. She held the key in her hand, the thin line between heaven and hell. She was obligated to make fatal decisions.

One word, and a beginning soul could be terming for two final destinations.

And every night, her mother would tell of the same story, hoping to ease her own mistake. One of which he had done in her final days of being a justice fairy, before she had Matilda. One she was not very proud of.

_He was an Angel sent down to Earth, easing human pain. She was an apprentice from Hell, doing the exact opposite. They met on the mortal world, not knowing each other; falling in love. _

For a vase moment in time, they forgot their duties and spent every single moment together. It wasn't until Judgment Day that both of them realized something: they were sent to destroy each other.

Being banned from Heaven and Hell didn't bother them because they were in love. That was, until the worst was bestowed upon them.

She was pregnant.

Whenever in a case like this, the child was more or less sent to the mortal realm, which was perfect in their case. But both of their restricted side wanted to punish them.

So She had twins.

Upon that, Mattilda Avern was sent to do the job, defining the future for the twins. It was supposed to be her last case before she resided from her job, so she was not too pleased when interfered with such a complicated case.

So she did exact what the other Judgment Fairies advised her to do: she ordered for one of the twins to levitate to Heaven while the other was sent to Hell. Both were apart from their parents, who had been punished to remain in the mortal realm apart, forever. Meaning that their family would never reunite again.

It wasn't till the Judgment Day that Matisse Avern realized she had done a horrible thing. For the scene before her was unbearable to anyone. Fairies, angels and demons alike.

The rain poured all around like the drumbeats of a million fingers tapping against the ground.

A soft clandestine kiss from Angel to Demon.

A whisper of desperation. "What is love?"

The faded young demon girl smiled. "Love is everything you can't do without. Love is heaven, love is hell. We are in love."

The young angel softened sadly, watching his beloved cradle her babies in her arm one last time.

"We'll be together again." He promised her.

But before Again happens, two lovers will be separated. Before Again, a prophecy shall rewrite itself. Before Again, twins shall be torn apart from their mother.

One to heaven, one to hell.

But before Again, she named the twins "Hao" and "Yoh".

* * *

Macchi smiled to the world, her hair wavering the soft breeze of autumn. "Yes! License of Adventure, here I come!" It was her fourteenth birthday, when every Judgment Fairy got their official license to the world.

"Come on, Mari!" The red-hair girl dragged her blonde friend along and through the door to the Central Building. "I can't wait for my first assignment! My first chance to get out to the world, get out of the fairy realm!" She swilled around in her skirt, reaching her arms to the sky. "To adventure!"

Marion giggled. "Get the assignment first, celebrate later."

"Come on." They took their final stop at the last counter, where a young woman greeted them.

"I'm here for my assignment!" Macchi chipped happily.

"Name?" The green haired girl smiled at them.

"Matisse Matilda." The redhead grinned widely.

Tao Jun typed a case of codes into her computer, until she looked up. "Section three, paragraph two. Phrase thirteen: The Asakura Case."

"Eh?" The girls gave her a confused look.

That was, until realization hit her. A sad story, one she had not heard from her mother in seven years. One she listened every night before falling asleep.

"You mean..."

"The Asakura Case." Jun nodded. "You are assigned a partner to this case."

"What do you mean?" Macchi cast her a worried look. "Aren't they supposed to be-" Of all those years, she had always thought of the Asakura Case as an old, pre-historical document. It didn't occur to her that it only happened fifteen years ago.

"The two subjects in the case, Asakura Hao and Yoh, are turning sixteen in two months." Tao Jun read off her computer as she printed the paperwork out. "You are assigned a partner to the case, and to evaluate the older twin before-"

"Their second Judgment Day." Mari said slowly.

"Right." Jun nodded. "I know you've been briefed about this already, but the Second Judgment is vitally important to both subjects in the case. It shall determine the place where they stand."

"I see." Macchi frowned slightly.

"Alright." The young women handed her a nameplate. "Good luck, Miss Matilda. Your first stop is the underworld, Asakura Hao. Your decision will determine the rest of their life. Choose wisely."

Macchi gulped. "I'm ready."

Next stop, _Hell._

* * *

**Free talk**

Originally, I hadn't planned for the story to complicate itself like so. Dx When I first wrote this, I didn't know what to make of it. The idea was still fresh in my mind, and the plot bunnies were still dancing around in my head. It was unplanned really, like one of those things that just hit you. You don't plan for them, so I didn't plan for this.

I thought so then, and I still think of this as a great way to unravel my inner, probably hidden or nonexsistent, creativity. xD


	2. 2

_"String mistress, are you sure about this?" Soft black wings flapped in the air. _

The young shrine maiden turned around, smiling at her Shinigami. She reached across the soft golden beam. "Fate is a mysterious thing. It was fate that brought those two together, so faith shall now separate their sons."

"But." The Shinigami girl lowered her hand. "If they are separated, when will they see the light again?"

The String mistress reached over for a pair of silver crafted scissors. "When the time is right, of course."

The Shinigami boy gasped, as the young women lifted a certain red string. Both of them closed their eyes.

With a swift wind, the red string was cut.

And therefore, cutting the bond between the Asakura twins.

* * *

Shaman King is copyrighted to Takei, Shounen Jump, TV Tokyo, 4KIDs entertainment, etc.

**Worlds Apart**

By: Chiharu

Chapter 2

_"They say that when two people destined to be together are born, their little fingers are connected by a red thread."_

Ran Mouri, "Countdown on a Skyscraper"

If you're reading this chapter and had just begun to read **Worlds Apart**, I feel obligated to inform you that this is actually the second draft of the story. The original chapter was written around the summer of 2004 and needed much editing. A lot of time and effort has gone into the writing of this story, and to be honest, **Worlds Apart** is actually my favorite project to work on. As time went on, I began to reread the old chapters. Yes, it's hard to read something with so many grammar errors in it, ne? XD; Basically, I'll stop ranting to present you with the newly beta-ed version of **Worlds Apart**.

Chiharu. Jan 2006

* * *

Macchi shifted in her seat, flipping through her duffle bag once more. Capsule box, check. Extra cloth, check. Hair products, check.

She sighed, leaning back onto her seat as the train slowly pulled its way out of the Fairy Realm; excitement flowing through her.

_"So, who is my partner?" She had asked the desk lady, looking through her card. _

The women had smiled soft, as if reassuring her. "You'll know in due time. As of now, here is your train ticket to Hell". Somehow, her last sentence lacked its original meaning.

"Oh... Okay." Macchi had reached foreword, stuffing it into her pocket.

"Mari can not come with you." Her friend had said. "Mari does not get her license in another 6 month." She gave the redhead a hug. "But Mari shall miss you."

And that was how she ended up on the Night Train, starting on her first mission ever.

She had always thought of her first assignment as an adventure. For her, being stuck in the same realm for 14 years was enough to make anything tiring; she wanted to see the world.

She just didn't want to start at Hell.

"I wish Mari-Chan was here." She muttered softly, reaching over for her water bottle. "This assignment is going to be boring without her. And they won't even tell me who my partner is!" She fussed to herself.

Probably just another Judgment Fairy, she reassured herself. Or if she was luck, a really hot guy!

Macchi laughed at her own idea, smacking herself in the head. She knew well enough, that Judgment Fairies are only female. If she was paired up with a boy, he'll more likely be one of the council members.

She took another look into her directory. "It says once I meet Asakura Hao, I'm supposed to contact my partner to report the progress." Macchi read out loud, sighing. "Figures."

She took a look outside the window, seeing the clouds and fairies roaming above. Then, another look at her own reflection. Her flaming red hair, her dark purple eyes; hardly fairy-like. Judgments Fairies are always suppose to look soft and kind, not like some sort of rebel.

Besides her collection of jeans and t-shirt, barely anyone could call her "soft". After all, Macchi liked it better this way. She didn't need her hair wavered or dresses and gowns to be stuck in. She looked punk enough, even without her wings.

She shrugged, laying her head against the window before taking another look at the counter screen of the empty bus:

Next stop: The UnderWorlds: 6 hours and 36 minutes.

* * *

Tamamura Tamao was having a good day, overall. At least, she thought so. With all the traffic in town, her shopping plans looked bleak.

"Looks like I'll have to fly to the market, then." She sighed, opening the door. "I'm going out for groceries, okay?"

A soft hum from the living room, which meant he had heard her. Tamao smiled, closing the door.

She yawned, ready to stretch her wings. That is, until she took one look at the front lawn. There was someone sitting there, flipping through some odd map.

Tamao paused, taking step foreword. "Ano, can I help you?"

The boy looked up. His dark turquoise eyes frowning. "Oh, sorry." He quickly got up. "I'm just lost, that's all."

Tamao smiled. "Well, do you need directions?"

The boy stared at her. "Actually, yes. Do you know where Asakura Yoh lives?"

* * *

Macchi looked around, and then back at her map. She was lost already.

Hell was... Different than she had imagined. Sure, Hell had its share of dark alleys, slez bars, drug dealers and bootlegs. Still, it wasn't anything she was unprepared for.

The only thing odd was the color. Everything seemed to be in a tinted color of red. The leaves were red, the sky was orange, and everything just looks spiked up. Everything resembled a flame-ish color.

Macchi shrugged, putting away her map. Then again, who was she to be talking? She had been to the Heaven realm before, except the tints were the exact opposite. Everything there was light blue, like fluffy clouds.

But this, this is just odd. Everything in Hell looked perfectly normal. The streets, the shops, the roadside street gangs.

If she can't even read her own map, it looks like she was down to her last source: to ask.

"Excuse me." She bended down at one of the roadside beggars. "Would you happen to know where-"

The old man didn't reply. Instead, he reach his hand out at her, palm up. "Spare some money, please, young miss."

"Eh..." Macchi paused, reaching for her pocket. To be honest, she felt bad for these beggars. There's obviously nothing wrong with them, they can function normally like any member of society. Yet, they would rather sleep on the streets.

She sighed, dropping a 100-yen bill into their bucket.

The man barely looked up. "You are looking for the SOF Centreville, no?"

"How did you-"

"There's no point in asking." The old man replied, his ragged cloth looming on. "Keep walking until you find the dock, then you'll see a small bar. You go there, and you shall find everything you need."

Macchi paused, not knowing how to reply. She knew this could very well be a trap, but she had to give it a change. Then again, where else is she going to find a mind-reading geezer on the side of the road?

"O... Okay." She looked around. "But which was to the-"

The man was gone.

* * *

Macchi sighed, taking a deep breath. She finally found the Port Dock, and the bar.

She could ignore the smell of it, she could ignore the look of it, but she could not ignore that sense of feeling, telling her something is just _wrong _with this place.

Macchi paused, knocking on the door.

It slammed open as a tall man stared down at her, probably a bartender. "Oh, look, a girl!" He laughed.

The redhead took a step back, trying to get some fresh air. The bar smelled even more like trash from the inside. Not to mention the man's breath was bad. It wasn't the kind of smell you get from a lack of breath mints, but one of those odd stints of a long time smoker.

"Yeah, I'm looking for someone name Asakura Hao." She managed to reply, holding her breath.

_Oh, please let this be the right place_. She did _not_ want to go into another bar again, especially if it smells like this.

"Oh, right. Hao." The tall man took a step back, leaving enough room for Macchi to come in. She took one look, suddenly regretting ever coming here.

_This place... Is a drug bar?_ What in the world would Asakura Hao be doing here?

"Wait a sec', Honey." The sleazy man turned around, walking across the bar to one of the few doors at the end of the hall. Rooms, probably.

Macchi dreaded the thought of staying in here. These people... They were all staring at her.

The man was back, and this time he was followed by someone. Macchi couldn't really make out the looks of the newcomer between the heavy smokes in the room.

"Here you go." The man managed to shove both of them out of the door, closing it.

Macchi gave the other boy a look, biting on her lower lip. "You... _You're_ Asakura Hao?"

The brunette boy sighed, flattening his wrinkled shirt. "Yes, and you are?"

"Matilda Matisse!" She grinned proudly in return. "I'm from the Central Office and heaven and-"

Hao looked up, eyes blank. "You're the Fairy that's supposed to come and pick me up for Judgment Day." Between his long hair and the steady stare, Macchi was pretty sure this was not going to be easy.

"Well, yeah and I..."

"_Look_." Hao sighed. Leaning against the door. "The last thing I need is to be evaluated by someone from Heaven. You know nothing about me, and I don't intent on filling in the blanks." His voice was flat.

Macchi paused, taking a step back. "Well, it's my job to-"

"Listen to me." The boy had dead-pinned. "People like you couldn't understand, so don't even try to act like to do. Or care." He paused, scanning her through. "How old you are, anyway? Thirteen?"

"Fourteen!" Macchi replied defensibly.

"Whatever." Hao shrugged. "I'm not leaving."

Macchi was stunned. Never, had she heard of anyone who wanted to stay in Hell. She gave him one final look.

Dirty t-shirt.

Ripped Jeans.

Then only part of him that seemed a bit orderly was his long hair, tied up in a messy ponytail.

Either way, Macchi was not going to just drop this case. She had been waiting for the assignment for years, and she's not going to let it off this easily. "I don't care what you think, but you are coming with me."

Arms folded, the older boy gave her a side look. "Oh? And what are you going to do about it?" He was amused.

Macchi took a step foreword, determined to look serious. "It's my job to come for you, and it's my job to decide your future. So you can't get rid of me this easily. I don't care if you want to stay here; it's my decision to do so, not yours."

Somehow, her voice lacked its supposed tone. She couldn't help but wonder if she was stupid enough to mess around like this. For all she could know, this boy could be violent. Still, she wasn't ready to give up this easily. Always being the boldest out all her friends, she knew she could do it.

He paused, his stare deepening. "Look, _Fairy_. I don't want to hurt you, or let you get this _bad _impression of me, but I'm not interested in anything you have to say."

"No!" Macchi declared, surprising herself. "You listen to me! Just because I look young, doesn't mean you cannot take me seriously! All I'm asking you to do is to come with me and meet your twin! How hard can that be?"

The boy sighed, letting his arm lose. "It's not that I'm not taking you seriously." He paused. "But I'm not interested in meeting my so-called twin. I don't care how he's like, or what he is like now. Can't you just make your stupid decision by yourself?"

"You..."

"I know it's your job to bring me and my twin together, but I'm _not_ interested."

Macchi paused, looking around the dock. "You know what I think? I think you're scared. You're scared to meet your brother. I think you're just mad you got stuck in Hell while he's having the life of his time up in Heaven!"

His glared was deepening by the second.

"And." Macchi paused, a little bit scared. "And you know what? I bet your twin will be pretty happy you're scared to meet him! I bet... I bet he wants you to be scared!"

Of the glare she was getting, Macchi was pretty sure she's in trouble.

Instead of the answer she expected, Hao dropped his glare and started chuckling. "You are one odd girl."

Her eyes widened. "Does that mean you'll-"

"No."

"What?" Her heart fell. "But you just-"

"I'm not mad at you, but that doesn't mean I've agreed to come with you." He had shrugged, turning around. "You better gave up Fairy, I'm not coming with you, and that's final." He reached for the door knob.

"Stop!"

He froze, but didn't turn around.

"I..." Macchi whispered softly. Never in her life, had she been so serious about something like this. "Look, I know you dislike your twin for your own reason. But if this world stopped turning tomorrow, and everyone died, would you at least be a _bit_ regretful that you never met him? Just a little bit?"

Hao paused.

"You say you don't want to meet your twin, but that's probably non-sense!" She continued on. "I know you want to meet him. You owe you're self that! You owe your twin that too. You owe your parents and anyone who ever cared about you to at least try...

"So please, will you come with me?" It was a soft plead.

For an eerier moment, both of them were silent. Hao didn't bother to look up, and Macchi didn't dare to move.

She could almost feel him smiling.

"I'm sorry, I can't." It was his final answer. His tone contained a slightly peripheral regret.

Macchi sighed. "I guess if you really can't. I've tried my hardest." Her head bowed down. "I'm sorry for wasting both of our time, then..."

"That's okay." With a squeak, he opened the door. And then, he was gone.

Silence.

"Damn-it! What is wrong with you people?" She stomped her foot on the harbor, fuming.

For the one-millionth time in that day, Macchi sighed. How come everything just can't go her way? Why does Asakura Hao have to be so hard to convince?

The Judgment Fairy looked up at the tinted red sky. "I hope my partner is doing better with the other twin... How am I supposed to report back to the central _now_?"

She looked around, entering the alley for a shortcut. It was getting dark now; she really should get on a train back home. Crossing the dark alleyway wasn't exactly her first choice, but she needed to pick up her pace.

There was a soft awkward silence, as her footstep echoed through the long alleyway. It looked like another chapter out of a scary movie.

Then, a soft light lit up somewhere around. "Hey, what are you doing here at night, alone?"

Macchi jerked back, looking around. She wasn't scared, no. But she couldn't help but be a bit surprised that someone could have snuck up on her like that. "Who's there!"

"Didn't your mother teach you to not go out in the dark by your-self?" Another voice spoke up, laughing. It was anything but friendly.

"Freaks..." Macchi muttered, picking up her pace. Somehow, she found herself running.

"Where do you think you're going?" Another voice howled.

Suddenly, all the lights hit up around the alley. Macchi jerked around, awed.

She was surrounded, by a pack on street gang on motorcycles. Macchi bit her lip, already reaching for the closest thing that can act as a sort of defensive weapon. There were too many of them to fight, her only chance now was to run.

Macchi jumped over the trashcan; knocking over everything behind her. She only hoped that they would block the road for them, at least momentarily.

"Hey! Come back here!" The voices huffed. She could already hear them after her.

Damn it, why can't she remember simple spells at a time like this? What had her sensei said about wind spells? What's the point of being a Fairy when you can't even use your powers?

"You little brat! Come back here!" The voiced loomed from behind her.

Now regretting she could've paid more attention in class, Macchi turned right, hoping to lose the punks on her wheel. She seriously doubted it though.

She could hear them gaining up on her.

Macchi bit her lip, it was now or never. She stopped running, grabbing her broom out of her duffle bag. "Jack! Over soul!"

The street punks froze on the stop, staring at her pumpkin spirit. The orange light emitting over them.

"What _is_ that thing!" One of the punks awed, staring.

"Whatever! Just get her!" The leader yelled, charging at the redhead.

Macchi swiped her broom, creating a blast of energy. It knocked the gang leader right off of his feet.

"That girl!" Another punk whispered. "She's some kind of a which!"

"Not really." Macchi smirked, grasping onto her broom. "I'm not just a Fairy, I'm a shaman." Somehow, she couldn't be more proud of her father now.

"I don't care! She's still overpowered! It's all of us against her, just get her!" The leader hollered.

Macchi dodged, she jumped, smacked, but she was getting even more tired by the second. She could be half fairy and half Shaman; but no matter how experienced she might be, she really _was_ overpowered.

Her only choice now was to spread her wings and fly out of here while she can. She closed her eyes, focusing her energy on the ground. Glitter sparkled, and she was able to spread her wings out in time, flapping them desperately.

"Get her!" One of the snug managed to grab her feet in time, dragging her down.

Her heart sank; there was no way to escape now.

Suddenly, another bright light lit up, blind them.

Macchi looked up, seeing red. Flames. Then, a boy sitting on a giant flaming monster.

Hao.

"Women are so troublesome." Hao's voice was calm, yet he was smirking.

Macchi gasped, he was a shaman too! How come no one ever told her this?

"A monster! Run!"

"Ah!"

"Get away!"

Before she could blink, all of the street punks had fled away. Macchi blinked, _cowards._

Hao jumped off of his spirit, giving her a soft look. "Don't you know not to get in trouble? This isn't fairyland. This is Hell."

Macchi glared at him. "_I know that_."

The Asakura chuckled. "Yeah, yeah. I know you can look after your-self. You don't quite look like a shaman either."

The redhead shrugged, picking up her broom. "My mom's a fairy, Dad's a shaman."

"Oh."

She looked up at the older boy, pausing. "Well, eh. Thanks for saving me. I guess I should get going, you know, before I get into more trouble."

Both of them fell silent.

"Can I come?"

Macchi's eyes widened. "But you just said-"

He nodded. "Maybe you're just more persuasive than you tend to believe."

"Oh, you're the best!" All dignity forgotten, she had flown herself at Hao.

* * *

**Free talk**

Chapter two. Yep, it's all about Macchi and Hao. Yes, you get a sneak peak of Macchi's partner and the new characters coming up in the story. So while editing this chapter, I realized that, instead of using literary devices, I used Macchi's prostrations to describe her surroundings. It makes the writing seem much more juvenile, no? XD;

Anyways, review?


	3. 3

_Dark eyes were cast at the young woman. _

She smiled softly, hugging her daughter. "I love you, but I can't protect you, Dear."

The small girl cast a blank look at the women in all directed carefulness.

"The words are spreading; they will come for us, Anna." The woman took off her locket, hanging it around the girl's neck. "They will come for us; we can not risk it... I... I love you, really. I do."

--Insignificant things--

She didn't reply, instead, she reached out at the surrounding walls of the orphanage.

--Never believed it--

The women took one last look at her small daughter, barely six years old. She shook her head, heading out the door.

--Good-bye, demon girl--

"I Hate you too, Mother."

* * *

**Worlds Apart**

By: Chiharu

Chapter 3

Shaman King is copyrighted to Takei, Shounen Jump, TV Tokyo, 4KIDs entertainment, etc.

If you're reading this chapter and had just begun to read **Worlds Apart**, I feel obligated to inform you that this is actually the second draft of the story. The original chapter was written around the summer of 2004 and needed much editing. A lot of time and effort has gone into the writing of this story, and to be honest, **Worlds Apart** is actually my favorite project to work on. As time went on, I began to reread the old chapters. Yes, it's hard to read something with so many grammar errors in it, ne? XD; Basically, I'll stop ranting to present you with the newly beta-ed version of **Worlds Apart**.

* * *

Macchi took a small look at the boy next to her, shifting softly in her seat. Airplanes are useless, they cost too much; but still can't pay to get softer seats.

He didn't move or redirect his site. "Must you stare at me all trip?"

Macchi shook her head, there was no point not deny it. "I'm just curious. I mean, I'm not trying to be rude and all but..." She bit her lip. "Are you... Are you a..."

"Prostitute?" He gave her an amused glance.

"I... Eh.."

"No. I'm not"

"Oh." She wanted to ask more, but didn't dare.

Asakura Hao was a Shaman. Plain and simple. Macchi wasn't stupid, she could tell one of the Great Spirits when she saw one. Not to mention the boy sitting beside her was able to control one.

"What were you doing in that bar, then?" She couldn't help herself.

"There's not much I can say about it." Despite the awkward topic, he managed to give her a small smile, ending the conversation.

"Sorry." Macchi muttered softly, turning her attention back to the in-flight movie. It was going to be a long trip.

* * *

Kyouyama Anna was an Empath. She didn't care. Working at a stupid detective agency set up by the world famous Hotel heir was a bore, especially when you have a personality demon screaming in your ear.

She quickly flipped through the progress reports, staking them over on the next desk. The office was nearly empty now.

The demon adjusted from sitting on top of the table, its eyes casting at her every move. They knew; she was the only one that could see them.

--Stupid humans, depending their everyday problems on the simple human mind--

Anna rolled her eye, ignoring the voices. They were coming in again, even when the entire agency was near empty.

--You're reading me again--

She steadied a glare toward the Oni's direction, lethal. "Be a dear and just rot and die, wouldn't you?"

--You're too kind-- It sneered, taunting her.

Kyouyama Anna was an Empath, yes. She could hear everything. Everything: people's thought, ideas, she could hear everything. In response, she hated them.

She closed the last case file, setting it into the cabinet just in time: her boss was walking in.

"Anna, relax. It's Sunday, you don't have to be working." The woman reassured her, holding her coffee cup.

The blonde instantly put on a fake smile. "That's okay, I was leaving anyway."

The women smile, giving her a soft pat on the back before walking past her. Ignoring the demon sitting on the opposite desk. Then again, she couldn't see it.

--Now, if all my workers could be as dedicated, I could afford locking the office up on Sundays--

She reached over at the keys, walking toward the door. As soon as she walked into the open world, more of them came in. It wasn't something she was proud of, but she was used to them.

--Urg! It's too cold today!--

--When is the stupid bus going to come!--

--I want some candy--

She headed down the square-plaza, ignoring them. The last thing she needed was to play Advice Consoler and try to sort these thoughts out

--I thought I told him to buy the groceries--

--Look, she's hot!--

--Her purse looks big enough for good money. If I do it quickly enough, she'll never catch me --

Anna kept walking, she silently counted the second. One. Tw-

"Hey! What are you- HELP! He stole my purse!"

A man quickly stormed past her, grasping a black purse in his arms.

"Someone help me!" More pitched high screams.

She ignored them all. It wasn't any of her business who was getting robbed on the streets. It just wasn't.

She tried her best to ignore the other thoughts coming in that day.

* * *

Macchi yawned, taking a step foreword.

"Don't do that, your face may get stuck that way." Hao spoke up neutrally, walking past her.

"Oh, you _do_ have a sense of humor." She rolled her eyes, taking out her map.

"I try." He replied, sarcastic.

"Anyway, we are supposed to be heading toward the Ribbon Shrine." Macchi ignored him, looking on toward the busy streets of Izumo.

"Any other excuse why we landed in the Mortal Realm, then?" Hao adjusted his gloves. "I don't recall any shrines."

"There isn't." She paused. "The Shrine is in a parallel dimension between the Mortal realm and Heaven. I think-"

**EEEEEEEkk**

There was a giant squeak, followed by a deafening loud crashing. Macchi winced, her hands immediately went for her ears; wincing.

Hao didn't bother replying. Instead, he gave off a soft noise of amusement. "Just in case I didn't check twice, are Mortal technologies so dull?"

"What are you talking about?" Macchi blinked, silently following the direction of the noise. She instantly knew something was up.

Between the steep hills the streets indurate, they were standing on the bottom. There was a car at the top of the sloop, zooming down and crashing into the shops, zigzagging.

**BANG**

It was wrecking everything in its path.

Macchi paused, pulling onto Hao's mantel. "Hey... Do you see... Do you sense that?"

"Furyoku." He agreed. "That car is driving itself, being redirected by someone's Furyoku." He added in a perfectly normal tone, as if that happened everyday.

The redhead squinted her eyes, hoping for a better look. He was right; the passengers of the car were unconscious, head lying against the steering panel.

The car was crashing into everything: electric-posts, mailboxes, wrecking everything in destructions. Yet, no matter how much it dented or wrecked, the car kept moving down hills.

Macchi bit her lips; she had a bad feeling about this. Insensibly, she grabbed Hao's arm. "... What do we do?"

**BANG**. The car had crashed into another street-post.

He gave her a confused look. "Well, I'd like it if we moved out of the way before it hits us."

Macchi narrowed her eyes. "This is no time to be sarcastic." She hissed darkly.

**BOOM**. The car successfully smashed right into a fire hose, gaining more acceleration as it zigzagged down the hill.

"I can stop if, but..." She frowned. "I can't use my Furyoku in front of these people! This is the Mortal Realm!"

Somehow, she was clutching tighter onto Hao's arm.

"I don't think you could, even if you tried." The brunette replied, calm and recollect. "I seriously doubt the person manipulating the car only wanted only to destroy public property." He gave her a small nod toward the end of the hill, only about 30 feet behind them.

Macchi blinked, she hadn't noticed the sign there before.

Road end in 50 feet.

_The sloop, it's in reconstruction_. The road was supposed to be blocked. Clearly, someone spend a lot of time trying to highjack the driver.

**BANG**. The car was smashing everything, yet: it was still moving. Faster and faster. At this point, everyone had come out of the street-side shops, wondering what the racket was about.

"What do we do?" She asked. Somehow, the question sounded even denser at this point. Considering the fact there was a mad man on the lose, trying to ran a car off the hill. This all happening right in front of them.

On another factor, Hao didn't seem like he was going to do anything about it.

**BANG**. The car was coming down closer toward them.

"Nothing." He shrugged. "I do not know these Shamans, nor do I have a reason to save them."

"Asakura!" She jerked on his long cloak. "Are you really dull or something! We have to help them!"

Closer.

"_Please."_

He gave her an odd look. "These type of things happen. It's useless to try and stop them. Who's paying you to play hero anyway?"

"Urg!" She yelled, desperate. "Why don't you understand? You can't just _stand_ here!"

Closer.

The car drove right past them, still zigzagging. Toward the end of the giant sloop. Ready to fly off anytime now...

Macchi couldn't take it anymore: She ran off, following the car right past Hao.

"Are you mad, Matisse?" He yelled off after her.

* * *

Anna instantly knew when her onis found their next target. They had highjacked the car, not to mention knocking out the passenger.

She didn't try to stop them; she didn't have a reason to. Instead, she sat on to roof of a bakery shop, eyes following their every movement.

The demons had dropped the car off at the top of the sloop, letting the brake lose. Anna watched as the car automatically slid down the hill, destroying everything in its way.

She was used to her Onis wrecking havoc, destroying things. But something didn't feel right. It was almost... Going too perfectly. Most of the times, someone would have caught on with what's going on and stop the practical joke.

But no one was even trying to stop the car as it made its way down the giant sloop.

Anna frowned, hand reaching for her itako beads: silently debating if she should do something about it.

That was, until a red-haired girl charged out of the crowd, running after the car.

She watched as the car headed closer to the end of the hill, ready to run right off of it. But somehow, the acceleration suddenly stopped: the car was slowing down. There was a sensible aura of Furyoku coming from the red-haired girl.

_Ah, another Shaman._

She could almost feel the Onis shouting, angry that their trick was ruined. But before the girl could reach the car, the Onis had automatic released more energy, as the car started speeding up again.

Anna seriously doubts that girl could stop them in time. Unconsciously, she jumped down from the roof of the bakery: clutching onto her itako beads.

* * *

**BANG**. The car smacked headfirst into a giant speed bump.

Macchi sighed inwardly. That should stall the movement for a while. She carefully caught up with the car.

The speed bump was starting to break; the car is going to move again.

Macchi reached the door to the backseat, jerking the door open. She looked inside; there was a boy, passed out in the backseat.

She instantly jerked him out of the car.

Macchi blinked when she realized someone else had reached the other side of the car, also trying to jerk door open.

A blonde girl.

The speed bump was silently breaking into more pieces, and Macchi still couldn't open the driver's door yet!

That's when Asakura Hao brushed right past her. Both he and the blond girl were having the trouble, it seem that the driver and passenger doors were stuck.

Without thinking, Hao had smashed into the window, trying to open the door from the inside.

The speed bump had successfully broke, as the car had suddenly gain full speed again, sledding down the sloop.

"Let go! You're going to be dragged down the hill too!" She yelled at the boy, as Hao finally let go.

The car instantly sleds out of their reach, closer to the end: driving right off the hill.

A few seconds later, there was a giant crash.

Macchi bit her lip, slowly shaking her head. "No... Are they..."

"They're gone." Hao spoke up, blood dripping off from his fist. "I can't sense their Furyoku anymore."

Macchi had look up at the blonde girl.

"No luck, I couldn't get the door open either." She instantly replied.

Macchi looked down at the unconscious green haired boy, lying in her arms. "This is _so_ not a good day." The entire crowd fell silent; no one dared to speak up.

Then, a single black wing feels from the sky.

Macchi looked up, blinking as it landed on her hair. She instantly looks ahead of her, gasping.

There was a giant flash of light, blinding the entire crowd.

By the time the rest of the crowd regained their eyesight, the four teens were gone.

* * *

The first thing Macchi remembered was sitting on a bed. She blinked, looking around the room. The green haired boy was still in her arms, and Hao and the blond girl were standing right next to her.

Suddenly, the door to the room cracked open. A blue haired boy stepped in, followed by a girl who looked very much related.

Instantly, she burst out the first thing on her mind. "Are... we dead?"

The blue hair boy blinked, and then smirked. "Yes, I suppose it's only natural that one would question their whereabouts as heaven after seeing such a handsome person like me."

"Oni-chan!" Before Macchi could blink, the blue haired girl had successfully smacked the boy in the head, fusing. She turned toward them, smiling. "Hi, I'm Usui Pilica, and this is my Oni-chan. We are the Shinigami working for the String Mistress."

The blond girl stared, Hao kept silent, and Macchi blinked. "Eh... Okay... Exactly where are- Ump!"

A small figure had jumped into her lap, squeaking.

"That's Kororo!" The girl grinned. "She likes visitors."

"Oh, she's so cute!" Macchi gushed, tickling the small girl in her lap.

"Anyways." Pilica straightened up. "We're here because the String Mistress requested your presence. You altered fate by saving the boy, and that's a very serious problem."

Hao gave him an odd look. "It is?"

"No." Horohoro smirked. "But it is against the Manjian book."

"Not exactly." The door opened again, as a small boy enter, carrying a book that was way too large for him. "The book says that this was supposed to happen. And that Liam Diethyl and his wife were supposed to die today, but their son was supposed to be saved by Asakura Hao, Matisse Matilda, and Kyouyama Anna." He looked up, pointing to a specific section on a page.

Instantly, Kororo jumped out of Macchi's arm: leaping onto the small boy's head.

Pilica giggled. "Yeah, Kororo has an attachment to Manta."

"Enough." The blond girl broke in. "You haven't answered the question, why are we here, and what does that book of your know about me!"

The boy looked up, blinked. "The Manjian records the history of the universe seconds after it happens. This book contains everything, Anna-san"

"Yes, yes." Anna rolled her eyes. "We saved a life, that's nice. Can I go now?"

Manta paused, looking into the book once again. "It also says that you're an Empath, and the reason the Diethyl's died was because you let your Oni out of control."

Everyone attention shifted to the blond.

Anna twitched slightly. "So what? I didn't _tell_ them to do it." And with that said, she pushed her way past the boy. "I'm leaving."

Hao gave her a small look as the door slammed shut.

Macchi paused. "What's an Oni?"

"Let me explain." Horohoro cut in. "Kyouyama Anna is an empath- she hates people because she has no control. So she hears _everything_: all the good and the bad, and it hurt to feel the pain and anger and pettiness of everyone, so she hates people. Her uncontrolled power funneled through her anger and hatred has created all the Oni - she's their mother and they feed off of her energy. The more she hates, the stronger they are. We've tried to locate her several times already, but she would accept help from any of us."

"Oh." Macchi blinked. There was so much she didn't know about being a Shaman yet. "So there are-- Eh.."

The boy was shifting on the bed, stirring. Suddenly, everyone in the room circled around him. "I think he's waking up."

Emerald Green eyes opened slightly, and then squinted close as if it was painful to see the light. He groaned, opening them again.

"Are you awake now?" Pilica asked, leaning against the bed frame.

"I..." He slowly sat up, hands clutching onto his head. "My head hurt."

Pilica gave her brother a look. "We should report this." With that said, the siblings were out of the room.

* * *

The blonde man paused. "Meene, do you think this is a good idea? I mean, you have a lot of work to do, and-"

"You're such a worry-ward." The young woman cut in, grinning. "I know this is an important job, but I need a break, kay?" She pouted. "Or do you want me to faint from stress?"

"Of course not!"

"Then just lay-back, okay?" She smiled, taking off her silk gloves. "Try to enjoy the party. I can rule their faith some other time, but I need a break."

"String Mistress". Pilica walked into the room, accompanied by her brother. "Lyserg Diethyl is awake."

Meene turned around, attention turned to her Shinigami. "And the others?"

"They're in the guest's room." Horohoro shrugged. "But Kyouyama Anna left, should we relocate her?"

"No need." Meene smiled. "I'm sure she'll find her own way back here. Besides, I seriously need a break from all this work."

"I know exactly what you need to relax!" Horohoro jumped up in the air, temporary float and flapping his black wings. "You need some glories food!"

"A nice hot bath!" Pilica joined him, chipping happily.

"A free-for all Buffet!"

"A vacation!"

"A pin-ball machine!"

"A-"

Denbat cut in, separating the two Shinigami. "No." He smiled. "What you need is a break from these two."

"That's not nice, High Priest!" Pilica giggled.

Meene took a step back, scanning black their outfits. "Why don't you two get ready for the party? I want my Shinigami to look presentable."

"What?" Horohoro looked offended. "I looked good in black! Well... I look good in everything, but that not the point-"

"That's an order." Meene grinned, folding her arms. "So run-along now. We still need to finish the preparations for the party." She shooed the Shinigami from the room, laughing.

* * *

"So you're telling me this is the Ribbon Shrine?" Macchi gasped.

"Well, yeah." Pilica nodded. "This is the String Mistress's shrine, is something wrong?"

"No!" Macchi cheered happily. "This is the exact place we settled to meet with my partner!" She grinned. "The Minstrel Party."

"Minstrel Party?" Hao frowned.

"Yes, it's held by the String Mistress." Pilica explained. "Everyone who's _anyone_ will be here. The party is un-invitational, so anyone can come. But most of the time, mortals don't know anything about it: so the guests are all very important."

"Yeah, it was in my Manuel." Macchi grinned at Hao. "We were supposed to meet my partner in crime here. And your twin."

"Oh." He didn't exactly sound very excited.

* * *

"So you don't like Bob love?"

"Yes! I mean, No!" Nichrome buried his ears in the plan seat. "Just be quite already!"

Yoh blinked. "But I don't get it, how can you not like Bob?"

"I don't have time to listen to pop-music culture!" Nichrome growled, ears buried in his hands. "Don't you ever shut up?"

"Well.." Yoh grinned. "Ren always told me I talk too much, but I think he's just annoyed I stole his hair-gel and all, but talking is a privilege, right? I think people should express their thoughts and ideas, because it's fun!"

"Erg..." Nichrome rolled his eyes. "Why do I have to get the _annoy_ twin!"

**Free Talk**

Yes, yes. Yoh will meet Anna in the next chapter. There will be YohAnna. :D


	4. 4

_He gave the boy a plausible look, smirking silently. With a wick flick of his wrist, he made a motion for the boy to come up. _

_His dark eyes were blank, not a trace of fear. The four year old looked up, planting his view. "What do you want?" _

_"So, you're the product of her failure?" Bloody red eyes creaked, almost so deadly. "I knew her past would catch up with her soon: she just didn't believe me." He cast another look at the boy. "For that, she's deadly mistaken. Tell me: what is your name?" _

_The boy paused as soft amber hair of bangs brushed against his eyes. "Asakura. Asakura Hao." _

_"Well then, I shall be your new mentor. You are now in my possession." A deadly smile. "How do you like that?" _

_The boy fell quite. "I want to be strong... To destroy my brother, can you help me get stronger?" _

_"Of course." The sudden fade to darkness. "Of course."_

* * *

Shaman King is copyrighted to Takei, Shounen Jump, TV Tokyo, 4KIDs entertainment, etc.

**Worlds Apart**

by: Chiharu

Chapter Four

If you're reading this chapter and had just begun to read **Worlds Apart**, I feel obligated to inform you that this is actually the second draft of the story. The original chapter was written around the summer of 2004 and needed much editing. A lot of time and effort has gone into the writing of this story, and to be honest, **Worlds Apart** is actually my favorite project to work on. As time went on, I began to reread the old chapters. Yes, it's hard to read something with so many grammar errors in it, ne? XD; Basically, I'll stop ranting to present you with the newly beta-ed version of **Worlds Apart**.

Chiharu, Jan 2006.

* * *

Nichrome shook his head, looking down at the map. This should have been the right place, but the only grand monument in front of them was a dump.

"Ano." The older boy grinned. "Are we lost?"

"No." The boy grunted, managing a glare. "We're not lost, I just... Don't know where we are exactly... That's different."

"Oh." Yoh smiled. "If you say so."

"I probably just misread this." Nichrome attempted to flip through the wide map, looking for points. "But... It says we're right here." He looked up again; the view of the dump was still in front of them.

"What are you looking for again?" Yoh leaned over the shorter boy, looking over him.

"The door to the Dimensional Realm." Nichrome replied, sighing. "But this just isn't right, we are at the right place, but there's nothing here."

"Maybe there's a password?" The younger Asakura twin suggested, smiling. "Like, 'Open Bob?'?"

Nichrome fought hidden urges to crack up, resting a semi-serious look at Yoh. "Don't start."

"Oh." Yoh frowned slightly. "Why not? It could happen."

He ignored him, looking back at the map.

"No, I'm serious; we should try it."

Silence.

"Um... Are you listening?"

Nichrome growled inwardly, trying his best to block the other boy out. It was getting quite annoying by the second.

"Er, please?"

Interstate 58, rout 90. Turn west, northeast, U turn... He sighed, slowly folding the map over, blocking all possible noises out.

"It isn't that bad, you know..."

He turned around, shaking his head. "Fine, do whatever you want; just be quite!"

Yoh grinned, taking in a big breath; ready for shout out amerceable magical words. "Op- oof"

A flash of light nearly blinded him. Nichrome looked up, blinking.

There was a girl sitting right on top of Yoh, glaring at the surrounding. Her blond bangs clashed onto her eyes, and her sandals tipping halfway off her foot. And under her, laid her new-found cushion: Yoh.

"Stupid Portal..." She mutter softly, getting up.

"Er..." Nichrome paused, staring at her. "You're sitting on my client."

"What?" The blond growled, flattening out her skirt.

Yoh slowly stood up, robbing his head. "Ow... I guess that's not the password, there's no way something as heavy as that can be a door-way."

"Excuse me?" The blonde girl turned toward Yoh, leveling a steady death glare.

"Er... That's not what I meant. See..." The Asakura raised his hands in defeat.

"You wouldn't happen to be transported from the hidden realm, would you?" Nichrome's clam voice spoke out.

* * *

Macchi hummed to herself, strolling down the elegant hallways of the shrine; grasping onto her portable CD player. She had settled for a pack of Capsule in her backpack during packing, but only because there was no other way to fit everything in.

Pilica agreed to let them stay overnight after the party, but only when she agreed not to get in trouble. She wasn't exactly worried about Hao; the guy didn't exactly look like the talkative type.

But Lyserg, he was another story. From the time he woke up, the boy refused to talk. Pilica was worried he might have been mentally damaged, but Manta knew enough not to ask. Macchi had shrugged it off at that point, but now she was beginning to feel a little bad about it.

She paused, leaning off on one of the many sidewalk pull-ways. The sunset was beautiful, kind of reminding her of home.

There was a small tug on the end of her skirt as Macchi looked down.

"Matilda-san, Miss Pilica is looking her you." The small girl spoke up, smiling. "Please follow me."

As Macchi followed the girl through the maze of the shrine, passing through the many doors to resting chamber, she had caught a small look at Lyserg, sitting next to the lake; but both she and the maid knew it was pointless to try and talk to him.

"So em... What's your name?" Macchi added, in one of her pointless attempts to start a conversation with the other girl.

"Millie!" The girl chipped in happily, turning around to walk backwards. "What's yours?"

"I'm Macchi." The red-head grinned. "I'm staying for the party, you?"

"Oh, I'm a maid here. The String Mistress took me in when I was four, she's really nice." Millie smiled. "We're here." She stopped at the main entrance to the garden.

Tables were standing in the middle on the grassy fields, filled with the tables of buffets. There were dozens of tables, lined up perfectly over the beautiful garden. Variety of flowers and roses were set up, laying elegantly for the garden party.

There were, of course, classic French lamps hovering over the garden. Exquisite radio boxes were set up, as beautiful violin music lit up in the background.

"Turn this way." Millie instructed, opening the elegant door to the grand hall.

The redhead walked in, awed by the view.

She had never seen anything as beautiful as this before. Golden exteriors designs covered the walls; harmonic angels were lined up on the side. Luscious curtains of ravishing red mixed into the background.

In the middle was Horohoro, running around and moving things in the last minute; Pilica hovering over him.

"No, no. Oni-chan! Put it over there, not there. This has to be perfect."

Macchi grinned. "Need help?"

"Yes, please!" The blue haired boy laid the last statue on the ground, collapsing on the floor. "Pilica is such a perfectionist!"

"I am not." Pilica laughed, flattening out her pink skirt. "Mistress told us to fix the scene at the last minute, if only someone could be more cooperating."

"Do you call moving ten tons of stuff un-cooperating!" Horohoro raised a hand into the air, still lying on the grounds.

Pilica giggled again, straightening herself up. "Well, the Tao have accepted their invitations at the last minute; so Mistress wants this to be perfect." She emphasized the note.

"Yeah, yeah." The boy rolled his eyes, getting up.

Macchi was about to speak up when Pilica cut her off, seemingly reading her mind. "Tao Ran is a personal friend of our mistress, they are indeed very close. But around this time of the year, she fell sick to a cold; her daughter was carefully enough not to let her go out."

She shook her head, continuing. "Her husband never attends anything if possible, and her daughter has taken up an very important information desk job at in the Central Office. The only one left to attend would be their younger son, but he was still studying overseas in America. But he had recently returned, and agreed to attend this party on behold of his mother."

"Only problem." Horohoro added, fussing with his wristband. "Tao Ren is a perfectionist. This is one of the few times Mistress ever met him, she want him to have a good impression of our Shrine. So that's why my little sister decided to taken on the job of torturing me at the last minute." He mock-cried.

"So, are a lot of people coming?" Macchi asked curiously.

"Yes, we have a much bigger guest list this year." Pilica nodded happily. "And they are only the people sent an invitation. We suspect that many more uninvited guests will come; like you and Asakura-san."

Macchi hasn't told them exactly why they were here yet; she didn't felt it was of much importance. But she had some idea that the String Mistress, all-knowing, knew.

The Shinigami looked up at the grand clock in the hall, smiling. "The guest should be pouring in any second now, we should get ready to greet them."

"_We_?" Horohoro raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, we." Pilica replied, literally dragging the boy out of the door and into the garden.

Macchi wanted to him, just the thought of being controlled by a younger sibling is already amusing. Of course, she could tell Pilica loved her brother enough to know what was good for him.

She shrugged, following them out the door.

* * *

"So, tell me again why I should help you?" Anna narrowed her eyes, walking past the wall.

"Eh..." Nichrome struggled to free himself, but the itako beads were too tight; grasping onto his wrist and slamming him against the metal walls of the dump.

As Yoh had learned in the last twenty minutes, it is very unfortunate for anyone to come across one Kyouyama Anna; let alone being rude enough to demand something from her.

Nichrome had failed in all categories.

He put up a good fight, of course. But the girl was simply too strong, it looked more like she was toying with him. The five-year age-difference didn't help on their side either.

"I think..." Yoh spoke up slowly, being still standing. "Could you please let him go?"

She turned around, giving him an amused look. The small demons stood behind her, sneering at him. "You are searching for the Ribbon Shrine, correct?"

"Eh... Yeah." He scratched his head. "Do you know where it is?"

Nichrome struggled more in the background, but kept his mouth shut.

The blonde girl had paused, looking down at the demons circling her feet; yelling something incoherent about not helping him. Putting aside the fact that she personally wanted to smack their heads against the wall, Kyouyama did enjoy going against her onis; watching them get mad.

"Sure, I'll help you."

The demons' jaws dropped.

A smile formed on Yoh's face, but was cut off by Anna.

"For a price." She added, jerking on her beads. Nichrome was released in the process, softly swearing to himself.

Yoh sighed. "There's always a price."

"Forget it." Nichrome cut in, grabbing the older boy's arm. "We don't need to mess around with her, we can find the entrance by ourselves."

"No." Anna sneered. "You can't, and you know it. Admit it, you need my help."

"I'm not a kid!" Nichrome fussed, a small vein seemingly popped in his brain. "I'm eleven years old, turning twelve. And for your information, I'm much more mature than you'll ever be."

"Its okay." Yoh whispered softly, holding the younger boy from attacking. "We get the point, you're smart."

"Right." Anna nodded slowly. "I'll show you how to get into the shrine, and you can get me into the guests' list. I have... A personal score to settle with the String Mistress."

**

* * *

**

As Pilica had foretold, the guest came pouring in; groups after each other. They were smiling, laughing, and certainly enjoying the party.

Macchi leaned up into one of hold in the hall, grinning. "They look like they're happy."

Pilica nodded, standing next to her. "I do hope so, this is very important to Mistress."

"Speaking of which." Macchi looked around. "Is the String Mistress going to show up any time soon? I was hoping she would give us enough credit to make an entrance at her own party."

"Oh, please don't feel that way." She blue haired girl clapped her hand. "Mistress is a very kind of person. She might be... Odd at sometimes, but we love her."

"Don't worry." Macchi grinned. "I was just joking. But seriously, have you see Asakura?"

"That boy we came with?" Pilica guessed, pressing a finger to her chin. "I've seen him around the shrine here and there. But, I don't want to rude and just walk up to him. He is quite handsome, ne?"

Macchi choked on her soda. "Him? Handsome? No way, more like rude. You have to know the guy to understand him."

"Does that mean you know him enough to?" The older girl teased.

The redhead shook her head. "I'm not attracted to him, really."

"Should I feel insulted?" A silent voice spoke up behind them. The girls sprung around to see Hao standing beside them.

"I should get going." Pilica declared, walking away and greeting more guests.

Macchi took the time to scan him through. Grey hooded jacket and jeans. At least he wouldn't stand out more than the ketchup lady. She didn't know if she should be embarrasses that he overheard them. Instead, she decided to change the conversation.

"So what do you think?"

"Think about what?" He turned about, blinking slightly.

"Your twin could be walking through that door any second now." Macchi frowned. "Should you feel some kind of emotion? Excited? Angry? Scared?"

"I never thought much about it." He replied casually, looking onto the red curtains. "I've never met him, never talked to him. Why should I make a big deal about meeting him just because he's my twin? I bet the next person who walks through that door had more history with me than we did."

Macchi knew he was just saying it for "figurative speech", but she couldn't help but turn around; waiting to see who would come in through the door next.

Sure enough, aside group had set their step into the hall, coming in from the garden. She had honestly thought it would be too much of a coincidence, but the world was still a weird place.

Macchi blinked, squinting her eyes. There was an oddly similar blonde girl, followed by a much younger boy. Then...

Either she had just eaten something bad, or the light was playing playing tricks on her eyes.

No, it couldn't be. The boy behind them almost looked like... No, that was an understatement. He had the exact same face, just shorter hair.

She could almost feel Hao straighten up beside her. She knew it was crazy, but she couldn't help but stare.

It seemed that they had noticed to two of them too, they had paused midway.

It felt like an eternity to Macchi, like they were frozen in time while everyone else could move. For what seemingly long enough, she finally moved.

"He... You.."

It was almost an eerie feeling, as a soft gust of wind blew past them.

"Behold!" A loud voice spoke up. "The entrance of the String Mistress."

They had cut their attention just in time, as Macchi looked up at the grand hall. An elegant staircase soon appeared as a beautiful blonde young women walk into the frame. Her white gown was attached to a small pedant around her neck, and emerald green eyes reflected back.

**CRACK.**

"YOU!"

Before anyone could speak up, Kyouyama Anna had suddenly jumped out from the crowd; using Furyoku to level her balance and aiming her beads at the String Mistress.

**SWOOSH**

Everyone in the crowd gasped, as they started rummaging.

A blonde man instant jumped in front of her, blocking Anna's attack. She narrowed her eyes, redirecting her beads and jerking the man aside.

"Move aside, I won't go easy on any of you!" Anna yelled, sending a blast of Furyoku at the young woman.

Before Macchi could comprehend anything, Hao had also launched himself at the String Mistress. The Spirit of Fire followed suit, in a flash of light, the entire hall caught on fire.

**WOSH**

The crowd broke, as everyone rushed out of the door, screaming and yelling. "AH!"

"Hey! Stop!" Macchi yelled. "What do you think you're doing!"

It seemed that everyone had ran out of the hall, afraid of getting in the mist of fire. It was burning everything down.

The String Mistress did not move, nor did she show any sign of concern when both Anna and Hao reached her at the top stair, leveling a sword against her neck.

**WOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH.** Everything was turning flaming red.

Anna looked up, glaring at Hao. "Move aside, this is my job!"

"No." The boy replied, grunting. "I've been waiting to destroy her ever since I was four!"

Nichrome looked like he was about to die, when he concentrated his Furyoku into the scorpion frame, leveling his shot arrow into the air. "Damn, stop moving!"

"Wait!" Yoh grabbed Nichrome's arm. "You can't attack any of them!"

Macchi had assumed he was the one in charge of the second part of relocating the other twin, despite his age different. She ran toward the boy, fussing.

"You can't attack Hao or Anna, it's too dangerous. Even if it's to save the String Mistress!" She yelled over the flame.

**CRRRAAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKK**

The smoke was getting much denser.

"The ceiling is going to collapse!" Yoh yelled back, grabbing Nichrome by the arm. "Get out of here!"

"Move, Woman!" Hao glared at Anna, pushing her aside. "I'm the one that's going to get her!"

Macchi frowned, trying to see through the smoke. "How come the String Mistress isn't moving at all!"

Anna and Hao bother noticed the same thing, realizing their hold.

Suddenly, there was an overwhelming flash of light.

* * *

"_Nice._"

Macchi looked around the hall; the fire had suddenly stopped as everything returned to its previous state.

The door to the hall once again, as the String Mistress entered. The real String Mistress.

"So, that was just an illusion?"

"Yes." Meene smiled. "That was pretty ingenious of me, ne?"

Pilica walked out from behind Meene. "Mistress Meene knew the two of you would pull something dramatic like this, so she created in illusion of herself to distract you."

"It was my idea too." Horohoro added.

"You-" Hao glared at them. "You knew why I was here all along, didn't you?"

"And me." Anna spoke up. "You let me go because you knew I was going to come back after you!"

"Yes." Meene nodded. "Denbat had informed me of it, he's quite the fortune teller." She pointed toward the priest, who had just walked in. "

"I do enjoy your ultimate efforts to kill me. It was quite an amusing show." She gave them three slow claps.

Macchi's jaw dropped open. This was the String Mistress? She looked no older than twenty years old!

"But it was pointless anyway." Pilica explained. "Mistress Meene is immortal, just as the rest of our shrine."

* * *

Macchi shifted uncomfortable in her seat. This was just too strange. First Hao and Anna try to attack Meene, and they she invites them for _tea_?

Meene sighed, settling down her cup. "Lyserg, you can come out too."

The green haired boy opened the curtains, entering into the room. He sighed, pulling a seat out.

Macchi could feel Hao's fist tightening up, she didn't know what he had against the String Mistress; but he was keen on destroying her no matter what it took, even if it meant burning down the entire shrine.

She didn't know if she wanted anything to do with him anymore.

"I just want you to understand." Lyserg spoke up in a soft voice. "That I know I've been overly unspoken for all the while."

"Let me tell you a story." Meene started.

"Maybe you might not know, but I was born in hell. I was raised as a single child, but my mother and father were soon summoned to the royal court."

A man named Yohmei was in charge of surrounding system, assigning spy into the mortal realm. He had sent my parents into the mortal world to assassinate a politically informed angel from Heaven. They managed to kill him, but were destroyed in the line of duty.

That was when I was taken in the care of Yohmei, raised up as his second daughter. I had soon become found of his daughter, Keiko; we were very close indeed. And in many ways, we were very similar; dreaming of becoming famous.

When we were both seven, we were introduced to another girl by the name of Wuruta Ran. That was where we had formed our gang, slowly climbing onto the latter of society. We were equally strong in terms of Shamanic Power; and managed to survive the years of training.

On Keiko's 16th birthday, she was assigned the job of hovering over the Mortal realm. Information was leaked about Heaven sending an angel to stop the pain inflected on floods and natural tragedy to the human race.

After that, we were separated; for I was introduced to Liam Diethyl. He had a job for me, and I was assigned to assist the previous String Mistress who was dying of old age. A year later, she past away. I was then crowned the new String Mistress by the Order of the Minastrate.

Because of previous failures, they didn't was to repeat the mistake; and high officials granted me immortality. Only, I was doomed with the job resting the faith of the human race.

That was when I was told by the officials that they need to punish Keiko for failing at her job. For falling in love with Mikihisa. They were casted away into the Mortal Realm. But when she feel pregnant, the twins were separated and leveled to Heaven and Hell."

She took a deep breath, turning to look at Macchi. "And the rest, I supposed, as they say, is history."

"My father was a premiering dowser, it was his job to relocate the person for the job, and found Meene-san." Lyserg added. "Now I now, the entire world is held together by such a breakable thread. The strings of the Ribbon Shrine."

"It is my job to hold together the faith of the world." Meene nodded. "But I want you boys to understand, the decision of your parents' faith was not made by me. Neither was Anna's suffocating past, I know you want to blame everything on me; I can understand, but you need to know the truth before you react."

The twins turned around, their eyes met.

Macchi could almost feel a surge of Furyoku coming from the two of them, they were equally strong Shamans. Much stronger than herself.

"And now that you are all gathered together." Meene slowly spoke up. "I know Macchi and Nichrome needs much more time until decision day."

"We need to get to the Osorezan Mountains." Nichrome replied.

"We do?" Macchi turned around, looking at the boy.

"Yes. It was in the last progress report I sent to the council."

"You sent a report without consulting me!" Macchi blew up. "You're just a little shrimp, how can you do something like that!"

"And some help you turned out to be." Nichrome declared. "Your client tried to burns us all down."

"And your tour guide almost killed us!" She pointed at Anna.

"At least I did it so we could get in, you act like your so much better just because you're older than me."

"By three years!" Macchi stuck her tongue out. "Ha."

"And somehow, I thought they were smarter than that." Anna rolled her eyes.

"This is no time to fight." Denbat spoke up. "The truth is that since you are heading North, we also need someone to deliver an important package to the town of Funbari."

Macchi and Nichrome paused from fighting, look up slowly. Despite their earlier quibbling, both were smart enough to know of Funbari and its importance to this case.

"Yes." Meene nodded, taking out a neatly rapped package. "If you deliver this for me, I shall grant each one of you a wish. Changes to your faith." She paused. "Its not everyday I grant pardons like this, I hope you understand."

"Why not." Macchi shrugged. "Since we're heading the same way, thanks to someone I had the misfortune of being stuck with." She turned to glare at Nichrome.

"Lyserg." She waved for the boy to come over. "Will you please assist them, I believe the Priest is also in need of a new assistant. My Shinigami turned out to be... Quite useless."

"Hey!" Horo yelled, grinning.

Lyserg bowed his head down. "Of course, Meene-san. I am flattered you would think this highly of me, its not like I have any other place to go to. My family is gone."

Macchi shook her head. "Of course not! We're all Shamans here, so death is always beyond the limit of eternity."

"Sooo." Yoh looked up. "Are we leaving soon?"

"Yes." Denbat explained. "You have my permission to stay here tonight, but understand that you need to start going very soon. But the truth is that in order to get into the next stage of your quest, you have to travel North. The Osorezan Mountains is a perfect place to go."

Meene handed the package to Macchi. "Please take of this, it's a important gift to a dear friend. You may open it when you reach her, but please take good care of it before you reach your designation."

"And this, is where your real journey starts."

* * *

**Free Talk **

Osorezan is the place where Yoh first met Anna. Just a little trivia for those who haven't gotten that far in the manga. :D Funbari is of course, the setting in the beginning of the anime and manga. I honestly have no clue about the geography of Japan, so I'm just going to take a guess and say they're going North.

So, review?

**Chiharu **


	5. 5

Eh... Late update. Sorry, my computer got messed up again, so I had to send it away. The worst part was losing all of my data and junk. that wasn't even funny. The whole thing had been funny at the time, but then I got paranoid because I had already finished writing chapter four... Gah, love sucks. 

A little birdie in my head got me into Beyblade, which is really odd. I don't remember EVER liking Beyblade. I didn't like it when it first came out with the horrid animation, and I didn't like when I saw V-force. But then, my friend forced me to watch one of her RAW episodes with her so... Yeah, I'm now addicted to Yuriy and Mihaeru. 

"You're obviously one of those people who like to watch mortals from higher places. I'm going to be the one to take you down, I swear on my life." - Hiwatari Kai, Bakuten shoot Beyblade. 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King nor any of it's characters 

**Worlds Apart**

By: Chiharu 

Chapter 5 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

Somewhere around dawn, Macchi had woken up painlessly. She was never a morning person, so it was an odd sight of her waking up because of the silent crowing. 

She walked out into the halls of the shrine, rubbing her purple eyes while looking up at the moon. Bright, leading, and beautiful. She found herself wondering what the moon looked like in Hell. 

"She left." A peaceful voice spoke up, cutting through her pondering. She turned around to see Hao behind her, giving out an amused look. 

"Boku..." 

Hao had shrugged, sitting down next to her on the ails of the sidewalk, laying his head against his palm. "Kyouyama Anna left, I saw her walk past our room." 

Macchi blinked, wondering if that qualified as random. "How would you know, don't you sleep?" 

"Not really." Hao muttered, looking up at the sky. "I find it peaceful at nighttime, different from day. When the sun is out, the world is full of life again. Busy, up-roaring, pollution of insignificant things." 

She didn't try to understand him, it was too early to use her brain. Instead, she focused her glaze on the night-sky. "My mom used to tell me stories of a lady living on the moon..." 

"Oh?" 

"Her name was Yue Tu, and she lived with her snow-white rabbit. She lived as a dancer, and was granted the privilege from Heaven." Macchi smiled to herself, remembering the childhood story. "My friend and I would daydream about what it was like, you know, to live on the moon by ourselves. But then you back at your life and realize: there's no place like home." She dreaded the fact of sounding corny, but it was partly the truth. 

"It's odd that you're wonder about life." 

"Pity. Don't worry, I only use my brain when I'm half awake. Other times, I try to avoid contact as much as I can." She rolled her eyes, sarcasm leaking through her voice. 

"Nice." He grinned, tucking his knee him while laying his head down. A soft smile on his features, he turned to look at her. 

The hallway fell silent. 

"Don't you miss your friends?" 

She blinked, rubbing her eyes. It took a few seconds for the question to process through her head, logically. "I... My friends are the best. They've seen me with greasy hair, bad fashion, and even when I'm on a temper trampy; even then, they still stick close to me. It's just one of those time when you realize: friends are forever. You know?" 

He hummed softly, pastel hair brushing against dark black eyes. "Yes." 

She grinned, patting him on the back. "Hey, I know I'm bitchy most of the times, but I'm not a bad person or anything. Or at least, I hope so. We're sort of friends, right?" 

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Are we?" 

She paused, pressing a finger to her lip. "Well, the way you look at it: we're gonna be stuck together for a long time, might as well be friends. I mean, I don't really care, but it's always easier when you can count on someone else behind your back." 

He gave her an amusing look. "Eh, whatever you say." 

"Here, pinky swear." She help up her little finger at the boy, grinning dumbly. 

He almost laughed, but extended his hand to her. Maybe, finding the right thing at the right time would be unavoidable. But... It was just easier that way. 

"Done!" Macchi grinned, pulling on a thread of his hair. She found it amusing, to say the least. "Where are we going next?" 

"Back to bed?" 

"No, really." The redhead shrugged. "Where are we going next? I mean, I know we're going to Izumo and deliver the package. But what's after that? What do we do when we get there?" 

He paused, looking up. "You worry too much." 

She snorted. "Me? You're the serious one. I just don't want to mess up on this." 

There was a point of pausing. 

"You won't." 

Macchi blinked, watching the boy get up. Silently wondering if there was something wrong with her hearing. "Come again?" 

He was gone already, leaving that odd sense of honesty in the halls. Asakura Hao was one odd cookie, she mused. And speaking of cookies, she could feel her stomach grumble already. 

"Ohayo." Pilica smiled, setting knife down. 

"_It's five in the morning._" Macchi stated, slowly rubbing her eyes. She scanned the girl over, blinking. Pilica was already dressed in T-shirt and skirt, ready for the day. "Why are you up?" 

"I'm always up this early, if that's what you're wondering. I like to cook breakfast, besides, we still have to get ready." 

"Ready for what?" 

"The party, of course!" Pilica laughed, clapping her hands together. 

Macchi stared at her. Before blinking, she mentally pinched her arm. "_Oh god, a reoccurring day!_" 

"What are you talking about?" Pilica giggled. "The actual party is tonight, after you leave. The illusion from yesterday was to distract you. You didn't think we'd set up the entire shrine just to trick you guys, ne?" 

"Eh." The redhead grinned. "Of course not.... So there's really gonna be a party?" 

"Yes. And since the decorations from yesterday were partly illusional, I still have to finished the decor." She held up to packs of icing. "What do you think? Strawberry or chocolate?" 

"Um..." Macchi leaned forward on the counter, running a finger through the white icing. She slowly tasted it, smiling. "Neither, use vanilla." 

"Done." Pilica smiled, squeezing the flourish material onto the cake. She slowly perfected the pattern, forming a obvious flower at the end on the sides. Macchi read over it, looking onto the words. It was a five level cake, each larger in radius. It was quite an astounding cake, actually.

"Did you make it yourself?" 

"Who, me?" Pilica laughed. "No, the cook did this. I don't have the actual talent to make something like this. I was just editing the icing part." 

"Wish I could stay ti taste the cake." She mused, grinning. "It look sooooo good!" 

"Actually, that why I have to hide it from Oni-chan." Pilica put her hands on her hip. "I just hope he doesn't eat it all before the guests arrive." 

Macchi laughed. "I wouldn't blame him them. It probably is good. Too bad we have to head out today." 

"Well, you know." Pilica shrugged. "I'm sure you'll have much more fun out there. I'm stuck with attending the guest, it's not something to be proud of. But the food is good." 

"Right." The fairy grinned. "I'm.. Eh, kinda hungry. Can I have some of that cake?" 

"Very amusing, no. Nice try." 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

"This is where we part." Meene smiled, handing a neatly packaged box to Macchi. "From the temple of Kyoto, you will leave this realm and back to the mortal world. Please do not open the package until you get to the destination." 

"Hai." Yoh grinned, resting his arms behind his head. 

"Sorry about all the trouble they caused." Nichrome stated, crossing his arms. "I'll keep an eye on them." 

Horohoro grinned, leaning one elbow over Nichrome's head. "You do that, shorty." Chronologically, he was still a feet taler than the other boy.

"Go west." Denbat instructed, handing a pice of parchment to Lyserg. The boy gently accepted, blinking slightly. 

Macchi leaned over Lyserg's shoulder, grinning. "We don't need a map." 

"It's not a map, it's a instructional device for you to keep in contact with the shrine." Pilica explained, her eyes shinning with pride. "It shows you all the hidden realms and magical forces a normal map would not detect. It's perfect for your journey, I made it." 

"Right." Macchi grinned, stuffing the rolled-up parchment in her duffle map. "Anything else?" 

"Also." Meene smiled. "You know the route, right?" 

"The Osorezan mountains." Hao spoke up, silently nodding at it. "We take where the trail in the woods leave us, there should be at least seven or eight towns to pass by." 

"Then beware." The string mistress's face suddenly faltered. "There are thing never to be tempered with, good luck on that." 

Everyone fell silent. 

"Eh... Where's Anna?" 

Pilica smiled at Yoh, breaking the eerie silence. "I think she already left. But don't worry, you'll see her again." 

Yoh grinned sheepishly, not exactly taking the information in. "Eh, sure." 

"Right then, off we go!" Macchi yelled, making a run down the hill, her flaming red hair flowing behind her as her orange duffle bag waved. 

"She doesn't have to be so dramatic." Nichrome muttered, chasing off after the girl. He reached for his bag, silently cursing Macchi's agility. 

Hao gave Yoh an incoherent shrug, following the others down the slope. 

"Oh, and Lyserg?" 

The green haired boy turned around, blinking. 

"Just... Have some fun, okay?" Meene smiled. 

"Eh, sure..." He turned around, running after the others. They were already half-way down the hill, waiting for him. 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

"I think....." Macchi paused. "We're lost." "No duh, Sherlock." Nichrome groaned, sitting down next to the tree. "We've been here for hours. Didn't anyone leave some sort of a trail?" 

Yoh grinned. "But that wouldn't be fun, though." He gestured toward their right. "Walking around in circles doesn't really mean we're lost. Plus, it's much more fun to explorer the forest at night." 

"So _you_ think we're walking in circles too?" Nichrome sighed heavily, leaning his head against the bark of the tree. He turned to Macchi. "What does it say on the map?" 

"Nothing." 

Lyserg blinked, frowning slightly. "Nothing? I'm quite sure there should be a-" 

"That's just it, nothing." Macchi explained, rolling the map onto the ground. The fallen leaves made a cracked noise as she attempted to smooth the paper out. "See?" She pointed to a certain spot. "We're suppose to be right here... But we're not because...." 

"We're in the middle of nowhere." Hao deduce, voice flat. 

"Gee, aren't you to optimistic one?" Macchi rolled her eyes, brushing a thread of red hair out her eyes. "Anyways, I don't think we're suppose to be here at all." 

"Check that map the high priest gave you." Hao said, leaning over Macchi. She could feel strands of his soft hair touching her back. She quickly forced the thought out her head, taking the rolled parchment out. 

The boys gathered around the paper as she laid it over the said map. 

Lyserg paused. "Mattise-san, I think..." 

"We're in the enchanted forest, just _great_." Nichrome groaned once again. "This place is haunted, and it's about to get dark soon." 

"What are you, afraid of ghosts?" Macchi smirked. 

"Ah- _no_. I'm a shaman, Einstein." 

"Come to think of it, that's kind of... weird, don't you think?" Macchi turned to Hao. "It seems that everyone involved in this case is a Shaman, or part-shaman." She counted her fingers. "I'm half-shaman, you two are full shamans." She looked at the twins. 

"Anna is an Itako." Yoh continued on. "I think Pilica was a cleric Shaman, Horohoro is a shaman, Meene-san was a cleric shaman, high priest Denbat was a monk..." 

"I'm a shaman." Nichrome added. Everyone paused, turning to look at Lyserg. 

"I'm a drowser." He explained softy. "That's another type of shaman." 

"That _is_ kind of odd." Nichrome nodded, folding his arms together. "You'd think there's something weird going on." 

"You're just being paranoid." Yoh grinned. "It's probably just by luck. Ne, Lyserg?" 

"If you say so..." 

"Besides, we can always rest in that cave if the sun goes down." The younger Asakura twin pointed to his right. Macchi blinked, turning her head half-ways. 

"That cave wasn't there before..." Hao stated caciously. 

"Oh, you're just blind." Macchi gave him a soft pat in the back. "You can stay out here if you want, but I'm going in. There's no way I'm staying out here at night." She stood up, dusting her skirt. "You coming?" 

"Don't worry, Aniki. Nothing bad is going to happen." Yoh smiled, following the others down the trail. 

Hao paused, blinking. Aniki... No one has called him that before... It sounded... odd. He was always either 'Asakura', or 'hey boy'. Even 'Hao' sounded unfamiliar... He shook his head, it didn't matter. 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

The boy pushed the gate open, muttering softly. His dark purple hair was slightly ruffled, not that he cared. Everything in the halls were already set up. 

"Eh, hi?" Pilica blinked, sitting another pack of forks down. 

"Where's the string mistress?" He deadpanned, ignoring her attempt to be civil. 

"Well, hello to you too." Horohoro stepped out, hands on hip. "Mistress Meene is in her study. You're early for the party, feel free to-" 

"I'm not staying, I just want to see-" 

"Hey Pilica, where's that poker pack you stored in the lobby? I can't find it anywhere-" Meene paused, walking into the halls. She suddenly smiled after seeing the boy, clapping her hands together. "Oh, you're here early!" 

"That's what _I_ told him." Horohoro grumbled. "But he didn't listen to me." 

"Nonsense! He's like family!" Meene smiled, pushing the stoic boy toward the siblings. "Ren, they are my shinigamis: Pilica and Horokue Usui. Guys, this is Tao Ren!" 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

Macchi sat up in her sleeping bag, blinking. She grabbed onto Lyserg, who sitting next to her. "What was that?" 

"What?" The boy blinked, keeping an eye on the fire. 

Macchi sighed. "Oh... Eh, noth-" 

_It's not me.... _

She froze, clutching tighter onto his arm. "Did you hear that?" 

"Hear _what_?" Lyserg paused, giving her a worried look. 

She frowned. "You mean, you didn't hear it? It's that... I swear... I..."

"Poor girl." Nichrome tisked, looking innocently sweet. "You're finally acknowledging the voices in your head. It's hurtful to realize you're crazy." 

Macchi growled at him, about to open her mouth. 

_I don't want to die...._

She froze, cold shivers running down her forehead. "That, did you hear it this time?" 

"Eh... No." Nichrome now looked confused, crossing his legs in a bending position. "I think you should get that checked out, hear things others don't isn't exactly sane." 

"I-" _Please...._

"Did you hear-" 

"Macchi." Yoh spoke up. "He's right, you're imagining things. There was nothing there. Look, none of us heard it either. You just ate too much of that fish-" 

"I heard it." A quite, but firm voice cut through his speech. Everyone turned to stare at him. 

"I head it too." Hao repeated 

Yoh frowned. "Are you sure? I mean, it might just be the wind and all. I'm pretty sure I didn't sense anything around than the five of us." 

"I'm empathic. If I can hear it, it's defiantly here." Hao stated, standing up. He turned to look at the other end of the tunnel, leading into the depth of the cave. 

Everyone paused. 

"Eh... Guys..." Nichrome spoke up carefully, voice shaken. "Why is the entrance blocked?" 

Macchi blinked, turning around. "What are you talking about, the entrance to the cave isn't-" She frozen, staring at the scene in front of her. What had been the entrance was now completely filled with enlarged rocks. It wasn't even possible, how come none of them had noticed this before? 

_Please...._

She shivered, hugging herself. "I heard it again." 

Yoh stood up, face blank. He followed Hao's glaze into the other tunnel, pitch black. "Well, troop. Looks like someone wants us to go in there." 

"You've gotta be kidding me." 

"I'm not." Yoh shook his head. "It's not not any of us are scared, ne? Besides." He slowly slid his orange walkman back on. "This is pretty cool." 

"Do we have to?" Macchi bit her lip, stuffing her sleeping-bag back into its capsule. "The other end of the cave is just... So dark. Can't we do something else?" 

"Afraid of the dark?" Nichrome smirked. 

"You wish." 

"No, I don't." The boy grinned, reaching over Macchi's bag. "Don't you have some sort of flashlight in there?" 

"Two." Macchi paused, jerking her duffle bag away from Nichrome. She dug another watch out. "I have a flashlight, and a portable watch screen." 

Blank looks were sent her way. 

"It's a watch-light, smart one." She grinned, dangling her wrists up. "You know? Like in Meitantei Conan? Besides, this means we can split up in there." She gestured toward the split end of the tunnel, cut in two different directions. 

"Then I take the flashlight!" Nichrome declared, grabbing the lighting tool from Macchi. "We're splitting, 2-3. The bigger group takes the flashlight." He reached over and gripped Lyserg by the arm. 

"Fine, I'll go with Hao!" Macchi spit back, grasping onto his right arm. She didn't feel like going with Nichrome, he would just taught at her anyways. Lyserg doesn't look like the daring type, and Yoh... Well, she didn't care about what he thought. The only logical one left was Yoh. 

"Whatever." The patch boy rolled his eyes, leading his way through the left tunnel as Lyserg and Yoh followed behind. 

Macchi glared at him, flicking on her watch while turning toward Hao. "Come on, let's go." 

The older twin nodded, following her into the second tunnel. "Why right?" He stepped up so they were side-by side. 

The redhead shrugged. "Eh, because they turned left? Besides, this place is haunted, it gives me the creeps." She silently shivered at the thought. 

"You said you weren't afraid of ghosts." He adjusted his jacket. 

"I'm not." Macchi frowned slightly, biting on her lower lip. The corner was getting darker, even her light-watch was only able to give out a small amount of light, barely enough. She found her hand slipping into his. "It's just.. Not right." 

Hao paused, blinking. He held up his arm, she still didn't let go of his hand. 

"Sorry." The girl muttered, blushing. "I... Eh, have to hold someone else's hand whenever I'm scared." 

"Right." He smiled, sending a pack of butterflies down her stomach. Why do the cute ones have to be weird, she silently wondered. It was the same thing she had asked when they first met. 

"Thank..." Macchi mummer, continue to walk. 

There was a period of awkward silence between the two. She slowly counted the number of steps they had taken from the spot, sounds echoing through the cave. 

_Help me...._

Both teens froze, looking around. 

_I don't... I didn't..._

Macchi found herself clutching tighter onto Hao, looking around desperately. "Ah.. Oi, Who's there?!" 

_Please..._

Hao kept quite, slowly closing his eyes as if predicting something. She stared at him, feeling a warm surge of furyoku channeling through her body. "Wha..." 

"She never told you, Macchi." 

"Eh?" The girl blinked, completely lost. Just when she was about to speak, her eyes widened. Countless thoughts passed through her head, messing around with the cycle. 

_--Why?-- _

--We can't tell her, Avern. It's just not right. I want her to be a normal girl, living a normal life-- 

--Are you crazy? She's a justice fairy, part shaman living in the 7th realm! Of course she can't be normal, who is?-- 

--I want her to live in the mortal realm with me.-- 

--What? That's not funny.-- 

--I wasn't joking. I want her to live with a normal life with me. We're leaving you, Avern.-- 

--You creep! Get a life, our daughter is growing up here, like any other normal justice fairy! Period. We're gone talking, get out of my house!-- 

....... 

She looked up at him, shivering. Her eyes shook, beginning to tear up. "Asakura, whatever joke you're playing, this isn't funny! Get those thoughts out of my head!" 

He leaned down, gently cupping her face. "I'm not playing with you, Mattise Matilda. Your mother never told you this, but she was an empath as well. You're half-empathic." 

His chocolate brown eyes blended into the serenity, calming her nerves down. Temperately forgetting their location, she frowned. "No, I'm not. I would know if I was empathic, because I... I'm not." She whispered softly. 

"Yes, you are."Hao firmly correctly, brushing red hair out of Macchi's eyes. "Empaths are crazy and pathetic, I know. But your mother was partly empathic, about 10. That why you're hearing these things Macchi. The other voices were not strong enough for you to detect before." 

"Lair." She muttered, trying to level a glare at him. She wasn't empathic, nor did she want to be. Empaths were crazy, they had too many problems not being able to control. 

"Listen." He leaned down even lower, face barely away from hers. "I'm not going to lie to you, being empathic sucks. But you don't have to worry, you're only 5 empathic. I doubt it will even matter. Only the most concentrated traits can be detected by you, which is practically never. Just... I just want you to except that about yourself." Was he.. Trying to comfort her? 

"What?" She blinked, eyelashes fluttering softly. 

"So you can except me." 

"I-" 

"Don't lie, you're afraid of me. You think I'm some sort of bad seed from Hao, so you try the hardest to stay away from me." Hao replied slowly, almost whispering into her ear. "You want to be friends with me, but you don't want to except the fact that I have... Issues." 

"I don't have a problem with your issues..." She said, biting her lips. Exactly why where they whispering again? "Fine, I get that I'm kinda empathic, what do you want me to do about it?" 

He smiled, letting go of chin. "Good, I need you to try and find where that voice is coming from. There's something static blocking my signals." 

She blinked, was this what he was trying to get to all along? She quickly shook her head, it didn't matter. "Yeah.... Can you just, try not to be so serious about it next time? Besides, what was all that mumbo-jumbo about?" 

"That _mumbo-jumbo_ was your parents fighting, Macchi." He frowned, crossing his arms together. "About where you would go, in case you couldn't figure that out." 

"Really?" She looked up at the boy. "I never knew.... Was that why they split up?" 

"Don't know." He reached for her hand, smiling softly. "Still need me to hold your hand?" 

She felt her face burning, "Ah..." 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

"So...." Nichrome raised an eyebrow, slowly picking at the rock. "We're at a end dead."

"Yep." Yoh grinned slowly, rubbing the side of his head. "I guess we'll have to go back. Aniki and Macchi probably took the right path, I wonder if they waited for us." 

"Right." Nichrome sighed, turning around before pausing. He flicked the button on the flashlight, blinking slightly. "Eh... This thing isn't turning on." 

"Ne?" Yoh looked down the handle, chucking the batteries out. He paused for a second, grinning. "Well, that's interesting..." 

"What is?" Lyserg spoke up, looking around. 

"...." 

"What is it?!" Nichrome demanded impatiently, tapping his foot. 

"We're out of power." 

The boy choked, falling onto his back. This was so not the right time. 

"Eh... You if want, I can point the way out with my pendulum..." Lyserg assured him, taking out his wire-based strings. 

"Really?" Yoh grinned, putting his hands behind his head. "Cool, I didn't know you could do that." 

"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?!" Nichrome nearly yelled. 

"Eh..." Lyserg sweat-dropped. "You never asked." 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

"This is crazy." Macchi declared. "I can't hear anything now. I mean, I'm trying, but I really just can't hear anything." 

"It's okay." Hao shrugged, leaning back against the wall of the cave. He looked out at the scene of the beach, sand brushing against his feet. "At least you led us out the cave." 

"You think Nichrome and the others will realize they're at the wrong end soon?" 

"I already do." Another voice cut in. 

Both turned around, already expecting the face of a partly paranoid boy, a grinning brunette, and a smiling grenette. Nichrome, Yoh, and Lyserg who was silently drew his wire up, folding it back into its sash. 

"Look, it's dawn." Macchi whispered, pointed toward the view of the silent beach. She waved pounded softly onto the shore, carrying some shells and pieces of the ocean. "It's so pretty." 

Indeed, she hadn't realized they had spent the whole night in the cave. But the beach was beautiful, anyone who disagrees would clearly be blind. She would just sit there, watching the beach everyday. 

It took a few seconds to register the fact that Lyserg had asked her a question. Macchi blinked, turning toward the green-hair boy. "Eh... What?" 

"He said." Nichrome restated, sitting down next to her on the edge of the cave. "Where are we heading now?" 

"Silly." She sighed, laying her head down sideways on Nichrome's shoulder. The boy immediately tensed up, but she didn't care. They were both too tired to complain anyway. "We're still head toward Osorezan, I think." 

"Okie doky." The youngest boy replied, rubbing his eyes. "The whole cave-hunting thing really isn't my forte." 

"Me either." 

"Group hug?" Yoh suggested, taking a seat on the other side of Macchi. 

"Course." The girl grinned, grasping both boys with her arm, also managing to hook Lyserg down in the progress. "I was so scared in there, I dark corners. Being a girl sucks." 

"If it makes you feel any better, that horrid shriek from inside was when Lyserg walking into a wall." Nichrome offered, sighing. Macchi smiled, even though she felt Lyserg blush at the confirmation. 

"You all are the best." She grinned, yawning. "I wouldn't ask for anyone else to terrorize my assignment with." 

"......." 

"I hate to be the party breaker, but there's a-" 

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!" A halting scream cut them their moment of bonding. Hao instantly took a few steps out, eyes searching the beach. He paused, spot in a small figure in the water. 

"What is it?" Macchi grabbed Hao by the arm, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. 

**"Help! I can't swimmmm! I-op!"**

"Look, over there!" Lyserg gasped, pointing toward the beach. "That girl, she's..." 

More waves were splattered onto sure, getting more violent by the moment. Macchi couldn't understand. "Why are we getting high tides? The wave should be resolving smaller since it's dawn." 

"Someone's messing with the waves." Hao declared. 

Macchi instantly let go of her arm, running down the beach. She could feel the sand leaking through her shoes, silently getting more slippery. "Come on, we've got to help them!" 

"I.. What?" Lyserg stared, eyes wide. "We can't, the tides are too high, you'll drown!" 

"Fine, I'll do it!" Macchi yelled back, running into the cold water. 

"Jeeze." Nichrome muttered, finally chasing after Macchi. He easily slipped out of his shoes, throwing them onto the sand as he made his way across the beach. 

**"Heelllllllppp!"**

Yoh paused for a moment before dumping his bad and headphone onto Lyserg. "Watch after my stuff." He ran after the other two teens, nearly slipping on the wet sandy beach. Macchi had thrown her jacket off, leaping into the water, trying desperately to swim against the tides. Nichrome was behind her, trying to get past the suddenly harsh waves. The girl was still 20 feet away in the water. 

Lyserg stared at them. "They're all crazy..." 

"No." Hao cut in, staring at the other boy. "You're just ungrateful." 

**"HEEELLLLP!"**

"Nani?" Lyserg stared at Hao. "Yoh don't understand, it's too dangerous for me to try and save that girl... I-" 

"Macchi risked her life to save you. That day, when your car disfunction down the slope, she tried to help you." The brunette stated, crushing any hopes of defense against the other boy. 

"And any help that did." Lyserg lowered his head. "My parents are dead, they-" 

"Fuck it!" Hao had violently grabbed him by the collar, glaring deadly at him. "What is wrong with you?! You're parents are dead, you're still alive! Don't waste your life in mourning, do something frigin' useful and help them!!" 

"I-" 

"You're selfish, spiteful, and too blind! Get off your ass and help them, damn-it!" The older twin yelled, pointing toward the water. 

**"Heeeelllllpppp me, please!"**

Lyserg turned around, looking painful as the others tried swim toward the girl. The waves were still too harsh for anyone to get pass. He pushed Hao away, inserting his pendulum in the disk. "Morphine, OVERSOUL!!" 

With a flash of pink light, the small fairy sat into the seat of the pendulums, combining his furyoku into one concentrated blast in the air. "Grab hold of my pendulum He yelled over the water as the wire shot out. 

"I-.." Gasp. "I'l- try!" 

Macchi had froze from her spot in the water, looking over her head as the string passed their head and toward the small girl. She had reached up for it, grabbing hold onto the end. 

"RETRACT!" Lyserg yelled, waving his arm back. The wire came flying back, lifting the girl out of the water and into the air. Halfway between the lope, she had let go of the string. 

"Ahhh!" 

"I got her!" Yoh yelled out, extending his arms out and kneeling down. The girl had landing into his arm, burying her face into his shirt, sobbing. Her pastel pink hair were torn out of its braid, her pale skin soft from the water. She was so cold.... 

"Here." 

Yoh looked up to see his twin in front of him, kneeling down while taking off his jacket. He slowly rapped it around her body, tightening hugging the small girl. 

"Is she okay?" Macchi was out of the water, standing in front of them. Soft waves brushed past their feet, tingling. She was dripping from head to toe, her red-hair in water. 

"Jeeze, smart one." Nichrome was suddenly behind her, picking up her coat. He dumped it onto her shoulder. "The girl will be fine, but ware something or you'll get sick." 

"Eh... Thanks." 

"Seyram!!!!!!" A blue hair boy rushed toward them, crying out as a pack of villagers followed him. "Seyram, are you okay?! Seyram, come on sis, say something!" 

The girl looked up, smiling softly as she shivered. "I..... I'-" She coughed. "I'm fine!" 

"Oh my goodness!" An elderly women gasped toward the teens. "We saw the whole thing at the end of the beach. You were so courageous, you saved her!" 

"Dear child!" Another lady had grabbed the girl into a tight hug. "We almost lost you." 

"Are you okay?!" 

"Are you cold?!" 

"Fever?"! 

"Illness?!" 

"She's fine." Hao stated, crossing his arms together. "Just don't suffocate her." 

"Hero!" A young boy yelled up, pulling on the end of Hao's hair. "You're a hero, you save Se-chan! I'll never be able to thank you enough! You saved her, you saved my sister and-" 

"Yes, you're heros!" A old man walked toward them, his crane tapping into the wet sand. "And unbelievably brave as well, you saved that girl. We can never thank you enough." 

Macchi felt herself smile, she silently shivered. The water had been cold, maybe she had caught a cold? It didn't matter, she girl was safe. Her vision shifted, she frowned. Everything was getting fuzzy... 

"Hey, are you okay?" Nichrome blinked, giving her a weird look. She looked almost like she was about to faint... "Hey! Macchi? Hey, I'm talking to yo-" 

Her sight became black. 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

"Sh... You're wake her up." 

"I am being quite, you're not." 

"Hey!" 

"Please don't argue, Macchi's hurt and-" 

"Aren't you mister sensitive? I was the one who caught her from falling onto the ground!" 

"I...." 

"Hey, stop gaining up on Lyserg. Why are you bragging? Aniki was the one who carried her all the way back." 

"Eh... Yeah, I forgot." 

A snort. 

"Stop laughing!" 

"I'm not." 

"Well, you were about to!" 

A groan. 

"Grow up, Nic-chan." 

"Hey, don't call me that!" 

"Oi.. I think she's waking up." The room fell silent. Macchi groaned softly, running a hand through her hair. It was pasturing on the pillow, out of its usual pigtails. She felt a tug from the bottom. 

"Nee-chan..." A soft voice mumered, pulling on the end of the tip. Macchi blinked, adjusting her vision. 

It was the girl from the beach. 

"Finally." Yoh grinned, sitting down at the foot of her bed. "You fainted right after coming out from the water. It was kinda cold too." He shivered. "The lady offered for us to stay at their house, seeing that we're the supposed heros and all." 

"Are you okay?" Lyserg leaned foreword, frowning. 

"Fine, fine." She tried to sit up, grimacing as the boys pushed her down. 

"We can't have the only girl fall, now can we?" Nichrome smirked, sitting on a stool next to the bed. "If you die, I'll have to turn in the reports alone. And needless to say, that wouldn't be very good when shown on my record." 

She blinked. 

"He's just playing." Yoh smacked the boy in the back of his head. "Nic-chan was worried too, he practically started yelling when you fainted. Didn't he, Aniki?" He turned to his twin for support. 

Hao smiled. "Would that have anything to do with the fact that a 150 pound girl was lying on top of him, knocking all the oxygen out of his lungs?" 

"Hey!" Macchi sat up, crossing her arms. "I do not weight 150 pound." 

"You did when your entire outfit was soaked with water." Lyserg explain, offering her a small smile. "All that water in your cloth were adding at least an extra 50 pounds onto you." 

"Yeah, there was no way anyone would carry you like that." Nichrome smirked once again. "So we had to take all of your cloth off and strip you so that there couldn't be any extra- I'm kidding!" He explained, seeing that look she was giving him. 

"Yeah. Hao-niichan carried you all the way from the beach." The small grin chipped, jumped onto the bed. "He's so strong, brave, smart, handsome, and-" 

"Seyram!" 

A small blue-hair boy ran into the room, jumping onto the bed in the progress. He grinned at Macchi. "Nee-chan, are you okay? Yoh-niichan said you fainted, so grandmother said you could stay here. I'm Redseb, and that's my sister Seyram. We're officially in Esprit Valley!" 

Nichrome froze, turning to stare at the kid. "Where?" 

Redseb frowned, tilting his head sideways. "Esprit Valley." 

That was when she heard it again, a soft and haunting voice. Full of distress and cynicism, heart frowning in hurt. She finally remembered her mother, who had told her about it before. 

_ Espirit Valley, land of lost spirit._

--------------**TBC**-------------- 

Well, what do you know? More characters! Redseb and Seyram are from the manga, they're actually really cute kids. The two loves to follow Yoh and Anna around, not to mention they're also in the tournament. 

Anyways, hope this chapter wasn't too confusing. Sorry if the story is moving too fast, I just didn't want to leave out any details. 

Anyways, I'm going to China from Winter break, so I'll be gone for 3 weeks. Appearently, I'll also be super busy since I also have to continue studying for high school entrance exams. Gah.... 

Reviews, please? 

Chiharu 


	6. 6

"Mommy, what does a Shaman do?" The child grinned, reaching up for the young women sitting at the foot of her bed. Her orange hair clipped in two small pigtails, lilic eyes shinning brightly. 

"You converse with ghosts, silly." The women smiled, leaning down to hug her child. "That's what you are, someone with the right and ability to contact spirits from above. You hold the right to do whatever you wish." 

"Spirits?" Matilda tilted her head sideway in question. 

"People who have passed away." Mattisse Avern raised in a finger, smiling brightly. Her caring and happy nature shown up a rise of her index finger. "People who have left something undone, that way, they do not go directly to the spirit world." 

"Something undone?" 

"Yes." Avern smiled, tucking her young daughter into bed. "Most of the times, when a shaman meet their rightful spirit, they manage to resolve whatever tragedy from above." 

"What if they don't?" Came the bouncy reply. 

Avern bit her lip. She knew it was a simple enough question. Matilda hasn't meant to bring up the superstitious resolution, but no shaman liked to mention it too much. 

"Mommy?" 

"They remain in debt and move to Espirit Valley, Macchi. They do not move on or part with a shaman. They just... Live in angst and pain until the time comes when they..." 

"They what, mommy?" 

"Until they destroy themselves." 

----------------------------------------------------------- 

Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King, it is owned by Takei, Shounen Jump, TV Tokyo, 4KIDs entertainment, and Fox Box, etc. 

**Worlds Apart**

By: Kitori Chiharu 

Chapter 6 

"We chase the lie, until it leads to the truth." -Grisom, CSI Las Vegas. 

Yes. I know I am in dire need of a beta-reader, but I really just want to edit all these files by myself. Because I _do_ have a literature class I need to pass, and getting someone else to edit all my chapters for me isn't very healthy. 

Macchi had instantly sat up upon hearing their location. Blinking slightly, she paused before tilting her head. "Espirit Valley?" 

"Yep." Redseb shrugged, arms folded behind his head. 

"Why, is something wrong?" Seyram silently looking at here new nee-chan. 

"Eh..." The red head grinned slightly, scratching her head. "Nothing, just thought I heard of the name before." 

"Oh, okay!" 

Hao narrowed his eyes, but kept quiet nonetheless. 

"Are you hungry, Nee-chan?" Seyram perked up, clapping her little hands together. "I can get you some soda or water. Or milk, Okaa-san boils the best milk and-" 

"Come on, let's go." Redseb reached for his sister, pulling her out of the room. Yoh grinned as their footsteps faded into the background. 

"Espirit Valley, eh?" The younger twin sighed, rubbing his head. "Well, this wasn't planned but... Since we're here already, let's check out that haunted house I've been hearing so much about." 

"Don't be silly." Nichrome looked up, narrowing his eyes. "This place is perfectly safe, there's no such thing as superstition." 

"Yeah, and the next thing you'll say is that there's no such things as ghosts." Macchi rolled her eyes. "Espirit Valley isn't just some made up story, you know. It's real, and the place is real. And since we're all Shamans here, there's no reason not to believe in lost spirits." 

"So what are you implying?" 

"Let's go check this place out." 

. . . . . .

It was a sunny and fresh day in the village. The people were friendly and laughter engulfing the busy street-markets. Macchi grabbed onto Hao's arm, pointing at the main field plaza. "Look over there, and there's a fountain! That's so pretty." 

Yoh smiled, tagging along behind the redhead. He pulled on the orange headphones as soft melodic music blasting into his hearing range. He walked in between Nichrome and Lyserg; the green hair boy was also staring around the town-center. 

"This place is actually pretty crowed." Nichrome comment, silently nudging toward Hao and Macchi. 

Yoh shrugged, keeping his sight ahead. "It is. Why, what did you have in mind?" 

"Espirit Valley." Nichrome looked down, hands tucked safely into the pockets of his jeans. "It isn't suppose to be like this, not from what I've heard. The valley is suppose to be filled with demons and lost spirits, the land itself was suppose to be a wasteland." 

"You noticed too?" Lyserg caught up, walking on Nichrome's other side. "I thought I might have heard wrong, but there's definitely something wrong here." 

"Whatever it is." The younger Asakura twin smiled assuringly. "I'm sure it's no big. Like Macchi said, it's not like any of us are afraid of ghosts. There shouldn't be a problem when we can all defend ourselves." 

"You need to be on watch more." Nichrome replied, looking around cautiously. "Maybe they are fake people, you know? They might be created to just trick us." 

"Seyram was real." Yoh looked up at the sky, realizing that they had suddenly stopped walking. "I could touch her flesh, even if it was ice cold. I had thought that it was because of the water, but her body is actually giving off some kind of furyoku." 

"How can that be?" Lyserg's voice was now in a whisper. "None of the other villagers seemed to have noticed." 

"Maybe they don't." Nichrome joined in. "If you think about it, why in the world was a little girl doing outside that early anyway? Morning swim? Not likely." 

"Are you saying that someone was targeting Seyram?" The drowser paused, consider the question. "I've been to weirder places, and this village seems normal enough. I guess there's just some sort of bad vibe in the air." 

"Bad vibe?" The patch boy raised an eyebrow. 

"What are you doing?" Macchi's voice cut through their inner circle, causing the three boys to jerk around. "Come on, let's go. I heard there's a lake nearby, I want to see." 

"Yes, master." Nichrome bowed down, rolling his eyes. 

. . . . . .

"Please have some tea." Pilica laid the china down in front of Ren, bowing before taking a step behind Meene's chair. 

The string mistress smiled at Ren, sipping a little from her cup. She set it down onto the round and elegant table, looking around the room. The main hall was filled with countless guests dressed formally for the party, the real one. "So, how's Ran?" 

"Mother is fine." The chinese boy grunted, taking a careless look from his watch. "She said a bunch of crap about how she wanted to be here, but you get the point. Old people these days are so annoying." 

"Hey!" Horohoro snapped, standing beside Pilica. "Don't talk like that to-" 

"Horokue." Meene waved it off, smiling slightly. "I see that your language hasn't got any better, Ren. That's okay though, I don't want to be the one to bore you here." 

"You're _already_ boring me." The boy replied flatly, eyes cutting through the formal greeting. 

"Do you always have to be this rude?" Pilica was getting irritated as well. "This is the string mistress, please show at least some amount of respect-" Ren's glare cut her off. 

"Pilica, Horokue." Meene smiled, looking toward the rest of the guest filling up. "Why don't you go and entertain more people?" 

"Hai." The siblings nodded in unison, cautiously walking away. Horohoro sent a dirty look toward Ren on the way, but the chinese boy made no notion of caring. 

"Okay, we're cutting through all this crap." Ren declared, crossing his arms together. "You are friends with my mother, but not me. I am suppose to respect you, but I don't feel like it. What's this big commotion everyone's been talking about?" 

Meene gave him a sharp look, hand tracing onto the patterns of her teacup. "The Asakura Case." 

"I've heard of it." Ren leaned back in his seat. "What else is there to know?" 

"Did you know that their judgment day is coming up?" The blonde questioned. She didn't give Ren time to answer before going on. "The council wants as many updates as possible, but there have been inferences in the way. Nichrome said that he already sent a report up, but Goldva recently told me that she has not gotten any hint of their current location yet." 

"Someone is cutting through their line of communication." Ren read her mind, straightening up a serious look. "Do you know what this means? Someone is purposely messing around with them." 

"Of course I understand." Meene sighed, tugging at a strand of her hair. "But those kids would only get more worried knowing that they were being followed, I didn't want to spoil their fun." 

"Mattise is a justice fairy, she's not _suppose_ to be having any fun." The teen repeated. "Patch is a born member of the council, so he should understand the consequences of this as well. The Asakura Case hasn't been the most hard-handling one yet, but we all know that it was the potential of being so." 

"That's why you're here." She smiled. 

"Don't you think that this is an too open place to be telling me this?" Ren looked around the hall, filled with guests. "Anyone can just hear us and spill to the underworld." 

"Everyone here was invited by me." Meene replied casually. "They are all trusted officials, so there is no point to be suspicious. Besides, this is also the nosiest place for anyone outside to hear, don't you think?" 

"Fine." Ren closed his eyes. "You have wits, I'll give you that much praise. But how can you track the five of them down when the council can't?" 

"Don't you mean six?" Meene smiled slowly. 

"Mattise, Asakura, Asakura, Diethel, and Patch?" 

"Kyouyama is there as well." 

. . . . .

"Does anyone else get the feeling that we're not in town anymore?" Macchi shivered, looking around the deserted graveyard. The trees were brown, the leaves were dry, everything just reached the scene of death. 

Yoh looked up at the manor in front of them, pushing through the gate. "Looks like this resort really wasn't fictional. 

Nichrome paused, running a hand through his hair. He looked through the plate near the gate. "The Bismark manor, built in 1896, was owned by the wealthy family of a German group. They dueled on the saluter of non-shamans and were also the best hunters at the time." 

"Near St. Valentines Day in 1876, a fire spread throughout the acres of land the manor was built on." Lyserg continued reading, frowning slightly. "Although everything within distance was destroyed, the building stayed perfect in place without a trace. The bodies of all the servants at the time, along with the master and his wife was recover. But they never found the remains of the Bismarks' young daughter, Kanna." 

"This is freaky." Nichrome shivered. "Should we go in?" 

"We might never get the chance to step foot into this place again." Yoh pointed out, pulling his headphone off. "And it's not like we're scared." He paused. "_Right_?" 

"Of course not." Lyserg replied with a weak smile. 

There was a moment of silence between the group. 

"Fine." Macchi declared randomly. "If we go in, then we can't split up." 

"We're not retarded." Hao replied, voice filled with a sense of amusement. He uncrossed his arms, getting up from his position with his back against the wall. 

"Then lets go in." Walking into the yard, Yoh lead the group through the dessert of dead plants and decomposed waste. Hao kept silent while keeping a slow pace behind his twin; Nichrome, Lyserg, and Macchi followed behind grumbly. 

It wasn't that any of them were scared, no. The situation itself was hard enough to believe and understand. 

The door cracked open slightly, revealing the single light bulb in faint brightness in the middle of the room. Macchi felt a slight tickle of wind breeze past her leg, and suddenly knew this was a bad idea. 

**mmmMMMMM**. The door slammed closed by itself, too typical. 

Yoh observed the scene in front of him. There were spider webs hanging off everything, an notable amount of dust covered all the future, some fissures along the walls. Over all, the main hall had every potential hints of haunted house. He quickly turned toward Macchi, "do you still have-" 

"No." The girl shook her head slowly, grasping onto Hao's arm. "I left all of my stuff back at the village. The flashlights are there as well." 

"That's okay, master Yoh." Amidamaru, in pre-fused form, appeared in the air on top of Yoh. "I can guide." True to his promise, the spirit was giving off a soft, but firm hint of glowing aurora. 

"Morphine." Lyserg whispered to the fairy sitting on his shoulder. The pixie smiled, leaping up into the air, sparkles and glitters of light following the slight movement of her wings. The light was slightly brighter, but not by much. 

"That's enough." Hao spoke up, turning to observe the place once more. There was a stairway on the other end of the hall, leaning right against the walls. He nodded toward that direction, taking careful footsteps toward the wooden staircase. 

The endings were brittle. They creaked, squeaked, and uneven equilibrium when step on. Macchi would feel her hand pulling along the sides of the stairway, keeping a close distance behind Hao. 

"Where are we going?" Nichrome hissed slowly, looking around. They were now on the second floor, looking down into the bottom. The hall looked even more grand now. 

"The library." Hao replied quickly, looking around. 

"How do you they have a library?" Yoh blinked. 

"We passed by a window on the way." The older twin shrugged. "It was close-curtain while all the other ones were open. I saw something structured in there: it's either books or someone moving." 

"Scary." Macchi and Yoh chipped in unison. 

"And... We're going in there _why_?" Nichrome replied. 

"No particular reason." Hao shrugged. "Unless you're scared." 

"We're not five-year old." Lyserg pointed out naturally. "Why would you think they'd be tempted with an-"

"I'm **not** scared!" Nichrome and Macchi yelled out, glaring at the brunette. Hao only shrugged in return, amused smirk on his face. 

"Never mind." Lyserg sighed, rubbing his head. He followed the rest of the group toward the other end of the hall, making their way around the corner. Why in the world was he stuck with these people again? 

"Sh.." Hao pointed to the wide door at the end of the hallway. The door was grand and elegant under the light of Morphine's illumination. 

**SSSSSSS** The door squeaked as he pushed it open. Macchi blinked in disgust when some cow-webs fell on her hair, Yoh took off his headphones again, Nichrome cleared his throat slightly, and Lyserg remained quite. 

"This place is pretty old." Hao walked in, slowly tracing his hand on the shelves, book after book. 

"Now I know where they keep the world's dust." Nichrome declared, looking around. The room was utterly filled with dust, if nothing else. The room was filled with giant book shelves, and he could barely make out anything. 

. . . . . 

_Hehee_... Everyone froze as a chuckle ran though the hallway. 

"Did you-" 

"Yeah." Nichrome swallowed slowly, exchanged looks with the girl. Lyserg stayed in place, Hao looked around, and Yoh smiled. 

"Where are you?" The head-phone boy spoke up. 

"Are you blind?" The figure of a teenage girl in her teens appeared in front of them. Her long, blue hair trailed past her back, her arms cross, face in a slight frown, and the silent aurora of light given off, Macchi couldn't help but wonder- 

"You're a ghost." Yoh declared good-naturally. 

"No duh, Sherlock." The girl paused slightly. "And you're a shaman." 

"Yep." Yoh grinned. 

"Kanna Bismark?" Hao took a wild guess. "I thought your body was never recovered, then you didn't die." 

"Everybody dies sometime or another, smart one." Kanna resorted, rolling her eyes. 

"You're Kanna Bismark?" Nichrome blinked, trying to take in the fact that yes, there was the answer to an mystery years unsolved standing in front of them. "And you didn't die in the fire?" 

"Oh, yeah." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. "I just hung around town and played Bingo with the old people and waited for myself to rot and die." 

"Why are you still here, then?" Macchi blinked. From what she had learned, ghosts were allowed to wonder around after death. "Are you tied to this place or something?" 

"You don't all have to be paranoid or something." Kanna smirked. "I've been around, but now I'm back." She straightened up. "Something happened to this place when I was gone, it's not anything to brag about either. The X-laws' been sending spies from their camp." 

"The x-laws?" Lyserg blinked. 

Nichrome narrowed his eyes. "Bounty Hunters. Most of them are from Heaven, but they work mainly for the underworld. You, being a mortal, probably wouldn't know this." 

"But why could anyone from Heaven want to work for Hell?" The boy was confused, even Morphine sent him identical looks. 

"Oh." Macchi clapped her hands together. "Didn't they get banned from Heaven a few years ago? I heard it was because they took any job given, and actually killed one of their members because they nearly messed up?" 

"Yeah." Kanna nodded slowly. "The String Mistress, her parents were a part of the X-laws. They were killed on duty by another officer. Something went wrong, and a riot started in the mortal realm. They killed a bunch of people, and the X-laws were officially banned." 

"Officially?" Yoh blinked. 

"Well." Nichrome explained on. "They weren't welcomed in Heaven in the first place, but there was no law saying that they _couldn't_ come up for stuff. But now that they're officially banned, none of the members were allowed to come up again. It was all in our history book, don't you read?" 

"Nah." Yoh grinned. "I think I was asleep during history class." 

"All year?" Kanna smirked. 

"Probably." 

"Back to subject." The blue hair girl declared. "This village has improved ever since I left. Now every-thing's grown and it looks... I don't know, normal almost." 

"And is that wrong or something?" Nichrome cocked his head up. 

"Yes." Kanna rolled her eyes. "This freaking village's been cursed since who knows how long. The fields would never grow, all that lives is wild grass. People were dying every year because of famine, plague, and all that jazz." 

"So you're suggesting that something's up." Yoh nodded slowly. "Or maybe you're the one being paranoid." 

"Paranoia is a state of mind." The ghost waved it off. "I have no problem with dealing with it, I'm dead. You don't have to believe me, but I'm telling the truth, and I rarely ever do that." Something told Macchi that she wasn't lying about that. "It's only a matter of time before the X-laws start filling in, so I thought 'might as well drop by'." 

"What's your point?" Hao asked dully, looking around. 

"My point is that you all should leave before something happens." 

"Is that a threat?" Nichrome narrowed his eyes. 

"The last time I checked: no. But I can make it into one if you want me to." Kanna declared darkly. Something told Macchi that they should stupid messing with her. 

. . . . . 

Ren looked up when the door to his room was slide opening violently. Entered, Horohoro with a tray of food in his arm. "Pilica wanted me to check if you were hungry, you didn't eat anything during the party." 

The chinese boy waved it aside. "Take it away, I'm not hungry." 

"You can do it by yourself, I'm not heading to the kitchen again." Horo declared, slamming the trey onto Ren's side-table. The purple-hair boy uncrossed his legs, staring intensely at the shinigami. "Or do you not know what a kitchen is?" Horo suggested. "Because know-it-alls like you never have any talents. I'm sure you've never seen the inside of a kitchen before." 

"Your inferior intelligence amuses me." Ren smirked. "Lucky for you, I'm not in the mood for a vital comment war. Take it away, or I'll just dump it in the washroom." 

"How can you waste such delicious food carefully prepared by our cook!" Horohoro tired to glare, he had a thing or two to pick with the other boy anyway. "I'll let you know that Lily-chan is the best cook in any realm, it's an insult to our shrine that you're wasting these precious deliquetes!" 

"Then eat it yourself." Ren shrugged carelessly, returning back to his book. 

"You-" The Ainu boy grabbed ahold of Ren's collar in an attempt to swing him around. He then found himself somehow pushed against the wall, totally not the situation he planned to be in. 

"Listen, you Neanderthal. I'm a hundred to the power of ten times stronger than you, so don't be foolish enough to challenge me to anything." The chinese boy growled. "I'm in a good mood right now, but that can change." 

"I'm sick of people like you!" Horo suddenly yelled out, despite of being in the suckers' situation right now. "Don't think that I haven't come across people with a holy complex like you." 

"Why are we even fighting, then?" 

"Because I don't like you." Horo declared. 

. . . . . .

"That's so weird." Macchi whispered, looking around. "It wasn't like this before." The sky was an un-breable shade of gray, all the trees and plants were gone, and there was an odd feeling in the air, like something was wrong. 

Something was, indeed, wrong. When they took their first steps out of the mansion. They found the village mostly deserted. "This place was completely full a few hours ago!" 

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious." Nichrome snorted. 

"Do you sense it?" Yoh turned towards the older twin; Hao only nodded in return. 

Lyserg closed his eyes as his pendent started glowing as well. Morphine, sitting on the boy's shoulder, frowned remarkably. 

"Something... Is coming." Hao spoke up, staring at the sky. Swirls of grey emitted from above, sweeping throughout the village. 

"And there's a remarkable amount of energy coming from..." Lyserg added as his pendent automatic swung up, pointing towards the forest. "Over there." 

"I have a bad feeling about this." Macchi voiced. 

"It's over there!" Lyserg suddenly sprinted towards dark fortress as Morphine followed behind loyally. The twins were the second to follow, chasing after the drowser. Macchi and Nichrome exchanged confused looks before following. 

. . . . . .

"No!" Redseb stormed pasted the crowd, only to be held back by the firm hands of villagers. 

"Let it go, Redseb." The Wise Man spoke up. "Your sister is a lost cause." 

"Stop this!" The boy yelled, attempting to desperately push his way through the crowd. "You can't just do this! Seyram doesn't deserve this!" 

Seyram's frail body was set on the top of the monument, laid down. Her pale pink hair was now as of a gray color. 

"Begin." The Wise ignored him, turning to the preachers. The men nodded, circling the pavement Seyram was chained to. Pulling down their hoods, the men revealed plates around their neck. Initials incised into the metal, X-laws. 

"STOP IT!" 

The men ignored him, beginning their chant of carnation. 

"Why?" Redseb looked around at the villagers. "Why aren't any of you stopping them? Help me!" 

The men shook their heads as the women looked down painfully. 

"Your sister is the sacrifice of our village to the gods. Only then will they grant us peace and harmony; it is the best for our village." The Wise Man replied grimly. "You have to grasp the fact that this is for the best." 

"But-" 

"Hush, Child. Do not be selfish." One of the locals replied, pushing him behind. The clouds moved away as a bright sense of light shone through the sky. Blasts of beams fell upon Seyram's body, lighting up the pavement. 

"It's beginning." The head man of the X-laws spoke up. Looking up at the sky, the men pointed their guns ups. "Jeanne-sama! Grant us the power of fluffing this summoning!" 

A lactic, melodic voice sung in the air in return, filling up the forest. 

Wssss. 

"Now." They looked down at the body, only to see the latches of chains broken through. Eyes quickly scanned the area before spotting the new comers at the entrance to the forest. The teens stood, panting as the green hair boy held Seyram in his arms, pendent retracting. 

"Fool!" The golden hair man yelled. "You have intercepted into the wishes of Jeanne-sama! The x-laws will not go easy on you!" On cue, all the men fired their guns into the hair. 

Light. 

Flashes of holy light nearly blinded Macchi's vision as figures of monumental proportions stood in front of her. Angels of metallic substance hovered the sky, broadcast her view. 

Havoc. In fear of their life, the villagers quickly flooded out of the forest, running back into the main central. People swung past them in flashes of blur and color. Redseb was making his way towards them, his sister, in the mist of all this. 

"Seyram!" 

Lyserg carefully set the girl down, offering the boy a soft smile. "She should be okay, they haven't done anything yet." 

**BANG**

"The fuck." Hao growled at him as the Angels surrounded them. The teens slowly retreated backwards until their backs were touching. 

"Ah. Asakura Hao." The blonde man sneered at him, his glasses flashing in almost a demeaning manner. "Jeanne-sama predicted this; we meet again." 

"Marco." The boy growled out under his breath. His breath slowed down as his voice suddenly lighted into a smooth flow. 

"The X-laws won't let you get away this time." Marco replied slowly as his men surrounded them. "I've been counting down the days before I could skin you alive, Asakura." 

**TBC**----------- 

Pre-fused form is best describe in chibi-form for the anime, per se. I thought it was adorable. 

**Authoress' Corner**

Ohhh, is that foreshadowing I see? And is the plot actually thickening? I do believe so. Now this story is almost halfway though. Pfff. It _only_ took a year or so. XD 

Lot of errors in this chapters, as always. I did proof read it a few times, but I doubt I was in the right mind to correct everything. 

I wasn't sure what to do with the X-laws at first. Meene used to be a part of the X-laws and is now the String Mistress. Someone asked me since Meene and Denbat are immortal, doesn't that mean the X-laws would be old? (laughs) Just to clear it up; according to the story-line, yes, the X-laws are suppose to be old. But the group is still immortal, so yeah. 

At the beginning, I wasn't sure how to let Hao embrace his situation because I wasn't sure if I should put the whole "X-law vs. Hao" situation in. Because then, Lyserg would have to turn on them, you know? I'm really not sure if I should do that right now. 

Hopefully, the readers will like the progress in this chapter. I always wanted to write a bit of RenHoro, so that's how the plots are going. Should Lyserg leave the group for the x-laws, and ought Ren join them? You'll just have to find out by yourself. 

Chiharu. 6.3.05  
The next installment is planned for the end of June. 


	7. 7

**Words Apart**

By Chiharu

Shaman King is copyrighted to Takei, Shounen Jump, TV Tokyo, 4KIDs entertainment, etc.

Chapter Seven

Matilda Mattise always had that flare for adventure. Most people call it troublesome; she considered it fun. This was exactly what she felt right now, surrounded by a pack of gigantic angels ready to attack.

"Someone better explains this later." Nichrome muttered under his breath, reaching out of his coat, ready to over soul into his medium.

"Are you sure fighting back is a good idea?" Lyserg whispered, taking another step back into their clump. "Wouldn't it be easier if we just surrender and work something out?" Despite the half-resolved voice, Morphine was all ready to oversoul.

"You'll never get an answer if we lose here." Yoh grinned as Amidamaru appeared behind him faithfully. "But Aniki needs to treat us to dinner for this."

"Right." Hao smirked slowly.

"OVERSOUL!"

The angels plunged forward as the group separated into different directions. Macchi leaped off her feet as one of them headed after her. One on one combat was out of the question. She grabbed the end of her broom before swinging around, causing the energy to blast and dent the angel's armor.

She was gonna need more if she ever wanted to get a free meal out of this. The redhead jumped up, running towards the direction of the forest. Combat, although harder, would be on her side once there. It would be harder for the enemy to spot her than vice versa.

"Come on, Jack." She whispered, stopping behind one of the passing by trees. She pumped some extra furyoku into her broom. She didn't have enough power to destroy it, but the least she could do was to damage the functional parts.

From her position 100 feet or so in forest, she could see that her companions weren't having much luck with them either. All except for Hao, who's Spirit of Fire was happily crumbing Marco's angle beneath its feet. The girl silently sighed; couldn't he at least be helping out?

She heard the sound of leaves crushing behind her; it was entirely too light to be an angel, and she can see all the boys in her sight of vision. Who the heck could be attempting to sneak up during combat anyway?

She jerked around, pointing her broom up. The Furyoku was _this_ close to dripping off the end and blasting out. Instead, she stared. "Ky-Kyouyama?"

"Please, I'd like to keep my hair in tact." Kyouyama Anna easily pushed her broom aside, walking up behind her to take cover behind said tree. "Don't you think it's rather hopeless to fight the X-laws, or is that a moot question?"

"If I wanted a psychiatrist, I'll make sure to drop you a line." Macchi hissed, looking around. "What the heck are you doing here? Do you feel in the particular mood of getting killed or something?"

"Not exactly." The blonde shrugged. "I happened to be in the area when the dense form of furyoku washed over. My curiosity got the best of me, thus, I am now standing in front of you."

The loud thumb of footstep echoed through the forest. It wouldn't be long before the piece of metal, as Macchi silently phrased through heavy swearing, found them. "Well, what's your brilliant plan, then!" She hissed.

"Neither of you can handle them. Asakura might, but you can't leave all hopes to him." She looked around. She leaned over to whisper into Macchi's year as the redhead nodded. She slowly stood up. "One.. Two.."

"Three!" Both girls sprinted out from their cover behind the three. Macchi jumped over random tree branches as she ran towards the direction out of the forest; she could see Kyouyama doing the same. The angel apparently followed them. She quickly jogged out and easily spotted Nichrome. Running past him, she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him towards the direction of the alter. Kyouyama yanked on Lyserg and Yoh; Hao realized the plot and followed.

"Teleport when I give the signal." Macchi hissed into Nichrome's ear as the group of six met up in a circle again.

Macchi used the rest of furyoku and aimed at the sky. The bright orange light shot up and dispersed a few seconds later, creating a blinding light towards the Angel. It was risky, but this was their last chance.

"NOW!"

Nichrome closed his eyes and focused upon the first chant that came to mind.

When the light faded, the group of teens were gone.

* * *

Macchi woke up due to the sharp pain on her side. She blinked before sitting up, glaring at Nichrome. "What? Wait.. Where are we!" 

"Outskirt of the village." Lyserg sighed as Morphine sat down on his shoulders again. "You fainted after the whole furyoku and light thing."

"Oh." She turned around to see Anna bandaging Yoh's arm, which seemed to be bleeding mercilessly onto the grass. "What happened to Yoh?"

"The genius here." Hao nodded towards Nichrome. "Still needs to work on his teleporting rant." He then nodded towards the rocky cave they were currently residing in. "Yoh landed on some sharp object or another."

"I'm fine, really! The only thing anti-climatic is not getting hurt during the fight, but on a random rock." Yoh offered, grinning. He raised his right arm to give the girl a victory sign, only to end up hissing in pain." Ouch!"

"Idiot." Anna grunted, finishing the bandaging by securing the wrapping. "Don't move so much."

"So." Hao turned to stare at the blonde. "How long have you been following us?"

"Long enough to see that you're way over your heads." Anna replied, taking a seat on another rock. "You don't mess with the X-laws and expect to leave without the lost of some limbs. Are you all out of your minds?"

Macchi frowned. "That reminds me... What happened to Redseb and Seyram?"

"Those bastards probably got to them first." Nichrome sighed. "They disappeared somewhere. Which is why we can't stay here for ever. They're probably gonna pick up where they left off with Seyram soon."

"What did they call her? A sacrifice?" Lyserg looked around, frowning.

"I took the liberty of doing the research on Espirit Valley." Anna declared. "Apparently, the village always had bad luck when it came to plantation. The village people always rebelled for a hope of better chance at luck, but to no avail because the officer in Central up in Heaven always ignored them. They ended up making a deal with the x-laws a few years back. They were to sacrifice someone with shamanic powers to bring peace to the village on the will of god."

"Via the X-laws?" Nichrome stared. "That's illegal trade of power. Heaven's Central should have something to say about that."

Anna laughed. "Even if they moderated these types of activities, the control-freaks in Heaven wouldn't really do anything. Hell never obeyed the rules; the system's been written before our time. You can't expect them to start another war because some random village is sacrificing a kid."

"So what can we do about it?" Nichrome rubbed his temples. "We don't even have permission to interfere, so they're never gonna send back up when we need it. It's the walk of death."

"But we can't leave Seyram there to be killed!" Macchi argued.

"Who said she was gonna be killed?" Hao looked up. "They'd probably recruit her into their line of work. While it's another shaman gone to the waste; there's still not much we can do about it."

"This is how sacrifices work." The blonde girl rolled her eyes, continuing to explain. "Whoever gets sacrificed is the soul procession of their new owner. They can do whatever with her. The X-laws are bounty hunters who worship God and all that; they'll probably train her to be one of them."

"What about Redseb?" Lyserg spoke up slowly.

"The girl's brother?" Anna paused. "If he interferes, and he probably will, they'll try to recruit him. If he disagrees, and he probably will, they'll kill him. Then the girl would end up unhappy, and they'll probably end up killing her too."

"And we can't do anything about it?" Macchi stared. "Redseb and Seyram are orphans, right? So technically, the villagers don't have to right to scarifies her."

"Technically." Hao nodded. "But who said the X-laws went obeys technicalities?"

"How would you know?" Yoh inquired. "And they seemed to be familiar with you too? Do you know them or something?"

"You can say that." The older twin shrugged. "I have a pretty bad history with the X-laws, when all things are consider. They'd take the chance to get ride of me too. It's to kill two birds with one stone."

"Why?" Nichrome narrowed his eyes.

"Long story." Hao waved it aside. "You won't have time for it if you want to save the kids."

"Are you suggesting that we go?" Lyserg frowned. "We aren't powerful enough to do anything besides a small distraction. You're the only one with the power to halt them, and you don't even seem interested."

"I'm not interested." Hao shrugged. "But it's something to pass the time. And I'd love to see Marco's face when another one of his plans is foiled."

"You're sick." Anna threw her head aside. "Either way. I got your asses out of that one, but don't expect me to get into this mess too. I've had enough action for one day."

"Are you scared of them, or do you pretend to be that way because you're bored?" Macchi spoke up slowly, voice dripping with venom. "If none of you are daring enough to, I'll be a sad, pathetic team of one to barge in and save them."

"Good luck, then." Anna almost smiled. "You'll die."

"But I'll dye an honorable death, then!" The redhead declared, marching herself out of the cave while stomping. "GOOD BYE."

"Macchi!" Yoh got up and ran after her. The group paused for a few seconds before Yoh dragged the girl back into the cave. "Don't do that, you'll get hurt and I'll never get to taste those pumpkin pies you talk so much about, 'kay?" He pressed his palms together in a pleading motion. "Do it for me and everyone else?"

"Nh." The redhead turned her head sideways. "How selfish of you."

"Come on, Mach." Nichrome joined in. "We just don't want to see you march towards your death!"

"But you'd rather let Seyram and Redseb march to _their_ death!" She glared at him despite the small grin already registered on her face. "Is that what you're trying to tell me?"

"Of course not." Yoh patted her on the back. "If you're really bent on helping them, then I'll go as well. We don't have enough powers to defeat them, but the least we can do is to get those kids out of there, right guys?"

The remaining party stared at him as if he had gone insane.

"Well." Yoh rubbed his head, smiling slightly. "I'll help, alright? But we need a plan; you can't just charge right into there."

"I'll help." Nichrome offered, slight smirk on hand. "I need something traumatic to go on my record anyway. I can't let you two have all the fun, can I?"

"I'm seriously." Anna narrowed her eyes. "It's too dangerous. The only one capable to even taming the X-laws here is.." She turned her head towards Hao. "It's death for the rest of you."

"There are things you can only succeed when pushed towards a limit." Hao replied steadily. "I believe that if we pass down this chance, there would be few encounters like this again."

"You don't have to come, Anna." Yoh smiled. "But we'll go, so please don't stop us."

The blonde shook her head. "Idiot." They were all idiots, and she was one of them.

* * *

It was night when they headed out as darkness evaded their surroundings. They traveled northward before coming up to Espirit Valley once again. 

The town was deserted.

From the corner of her eye, Macchi could spot a flick of light in the town plaza. Her companions nodded, heading up towards the center of the town quickly.

The fire light brightened as they got closer; and the sinking feeling in Macchi's stomach grew even more. There was more than one torch light; seven to be exactly. They circled around the square plaza and Redseb and Seyram sat in the middle; tied up.

"Welcome." A low, but loud voice spoke up. Nichrome jerked around as a streetlight lit up, showing the presence of the blonde man with glasses.

"Marco." Hao smirked slowly.

"I knew you'd come back for them." Marco smiled and a shade of his glasses reflected. "How about it? A duel. If I lose against you, you're free to take the children with you."

"I'd die before I make any sort of a deal with you." Hao replied with the same hint of voice. Macchi took a step back, Anna's glare darkened, Yoh frowned, and Nichrome slowly edged towards the center-piece.

"That's too bad." The man dusted his gloves off. "Because you'll die in about five minutes."

**FLASH**. The rest of the streetlights lit up, reveling the remaining members of the X-laws armed and ready.

"Now!" Hao yelled as Nichrome cut the rope around Seyram and Redseb. The Spirit of Fire appeared behind him, fueled up. "Run towards the western exist! I'll hold things up in here."

Macchi grabbed Seyram's hand as Yoh did the same with Redseb. Anna nodded at them, and the group began sprinting towards the direction of the forests once again. The X-law members followed as Hao and Marco stayed behind.

Macchi couldn't remember running harder in her entire life. All she knew was to grasp tight onto Seyram's hand and follow Anna's lead. She could hear Nichrome, Lyserg, Redseb and Yoh behind her.

Kyouyama, surprising enough, knew exactly where she was going. It almost seemed as if they had lost the x-laws upon the exit of the village. They were almost out when Anna slowed her pace before stopping. She turned around, staring ghostly at behind them as Macchi did the same.

No. No, no, no, no, no. They caught the boys.

"Nee-chan." Seyram whispered lightly, hiding behind Macchi. "Nee-chan, make it stop."

A man with mask grasped tightly onto Lyserg with both arms, another held a struggling Nichrome, and another was currently holding down a kicking Redseb.

Marco had pinned both hands onto Yoh's shoulder, giving him even less of a chance of resistance. "Asakura Hao took less of a stand than expected. The question now, is what to do with the rest of you."

Macchi grasped onto her broom; anger boiling inside of her. This wasn't happening. Everything was going wrong, and she stood no chance against them. Even with Kyouyama by her side, the most they could do was to defend for awhile. Then there was Seyram, trembling behind her.

"But up a fight, why don't you?" Marco pushed Yoh aside as his comrades released the rest. The boys got onto their feet and gathered with them. "It's more fun that way."

"That's rather sadistic of you."

Hao suddenly stood in front of them, smirking.

"You!" Marco growled. "I killed you."

The boy shrugged. "I was wondering about that. I thought you were rather delusional when you started yelling and attacking the tree." Illusion, he used illusions on Marco. It was a simple spell, but the man had not expected it.

"Nichrome!" Hao took a stance in front of them as the Spirit of Fire roared. "You know what to do. I'll hold them off while you get the rest out of here."

"Over my grave, you will!" Marco roared.

"GO!" They were running towards the direction of the light. Anna was holding onto Seyram as Yoh took care of Redseb. Nichrome was behind them.

Then, Lyserg tripped. Macchi jerked around, staring.

Marco. X-laws. Gun Up. Angels behind them. Pointing at her.

"Macchi!" She could her Yoh yell a good fifty feet behind her.

Blasts. Heading towards her.

She could see Hao hovering over her, using his body as a shield as he pinned her down.

Then, she saw red.

* * *

"I'm alive?" She woke up in a rather clean room, shutting her eyes as light filled in. 

Nichrome frowned at her, sitting from the bed opposite from her. He gave Yoh, currently sitting next to him, a confused look of amusement. "I assumed that was obvious?"

Yoh laughed. "Feeling any better?"

"Eh." Macchi sat up. "Where are we?"

"Temple of Hydra, of course." The door opened, and Macchi's glance adverted to a woman walking into the room, her long hair falling onto her back. "Nyorai heard cries of the Patch Adept from the west and answered his signal by transporting the lots of you here. I am Zira, gate keeper of the temple."

"Eh... Okay." Macchi swallowed. "What?"

"Yeah, Nichrome's the Patch Adept, right?" Yoh nodded towards the boy next to him. "I didn't know he was in the clan either."

Macchi frowned. The patch clan was one of the wealthiest people in the Heaven and Mortal realm. Nichrome, her sneaky little partner in crime, being one of them was shocking news to her.

"The String Mistress informed us hours after your rescue that Espirit Valley had been taken over by the X-laws." Zira shook her head. "We did not expect this sudden change of events for the X-laws target had never been about a certain town."

"Where's everyone else?" She remembered someone covering her, holding her back from the last blast. "Where's Hao?"

"Aniki?" Yoh blinked. "Oh, well. He's-"

"Standing behind the door." Zira cut in, grinning as she stepped out from the doorway. Sure enough, the said boy was standing behind her. His hair was held up in its regular lose ponytail; the boy was claded in a black t-shirt and lose jeans. Bandages wrapped around both arms up till his elbow made Macchi feel extremely guilty.

"Eh-"

"You have to meet these people." Yoh chipped in. "The shrine maiden, Nyorai, can read minds. So can most of the people there, it's awesome. One of the workers even got Anna fueled up."

"Where's Lyserg?" Macchi whispered slowly, looking around.

"Um." The boys exchanged looks again.

"They took him." Hao spoke up, taking a seat on the end of Macchi's bed. "They caught him, and we managed to get away." He caught her staring at his arm. "It hurts like shit, doesn't it?"

"Yeah." She smiled weakly in return. Every part of her body aced, but it wasn't just her skin. She felt so helpless inwardly; she couldn't even understand it herself.

"The X-laws." Zira continued. "Their rays do more inward damage to the body. Pino did a check up on the rest of you, only you and Hao-san had such internal damages to your organs."

"It's because they didn't touch the blast." Macchi suddenly felt tears swelling up; she dug her face into her palms. "I'm sorry, it's all my fault! If I hadn't been so careless, this wouldn't have happened! I'm sorry!"

The boys exchanged soft looks at each other; and she felt Hao patting her back. "I'm fine."

"But it hurts." She whispered. Whatever method the X-laws used; it was cruel. She felt so, so sad. She couldn't explain it, but she could feel the waves of emotional washing over her. "And they took Lyserg, too."

"I am very sorry to hear that."

The voice wasn't hers this time, and she managed to look up through the blurry tears to see a girl of her age entering, smiling. "In all honesty, this is the first time I've witness the destruction caused by the X-laws."

"Nyorai." Zira nodded.

"But I-" The redhead stopped she suddenly coughed violently. It hurted so much; she felt like her lunges were about to blow. Coughing never hurt so much. She stopped a few seconds later, only to stare at her hands.

Red.

Blood.

She was coughing up blood.

She was so scared.

"Macchi!" Nichrome and Yoh suddenly circled her, frowning.

"Potion." Anna somehow squeezed her way in as well, holding up a bottle. "Faust asked me to bring this here." She handed it over to Macchi, who frowned before taking a sip.

It helped, a little.

"What's happening to me?"

Zira and Nyorai gave her a soft look. "I'm afraid the internal wound will keep on spreading until your body grows even weaker. It's the X-law's specialty, tormenting people."

Macchi looked over at Hao. Did he hurt as much as her too?

"So I'm going to die?"

"That's crazy talk!" Nichrome turned around. "This is a healing shrine, don't you have some kind of method to, I don't know, heal them?"

"Well." Nyorai paused. "There is something, but..."

"Now would be a nice time to revel it to us." Anna pointed out rather sourly.

"Fountain of Spring."

The room froze.

"I'm not going in there." Hao declared.

"It's the only way." Nyorai frowned. Macchi stared at them; what the heck were they talking about?

"You heard me." Hao stood up, walking out of the room. "I'm not going in there."

"What's the Fountain of Spring?" Macchi peered over from her position on the bed. The girl was sure she had heard of it before; she just couldn't bring herself to remember anything.

"It's a waterfall cave." Zira explained. "The location is behind the forest of our shrine. The waterfall is magical; it can heal anything and everything."

"Then why is it a problem?" Yoh looked over, obviously wondering about the same thing.

"The thing about the fountain..." Zira drifted off.

"Whoever touches the water will become immortal." Anna cut in, plain and simple. "But it's not something with the same affect as the String Mistress. You _will_ age, but you will never die. In the end, your old age will leave you miserable because everyone you love on this earth has left you while you cannot pass on; it's a miserable existence."

"That's why Hao refused?" Nichrome looked around. "But they'll die if they don't; there isn't much of a choice here."

"You can always enter by yourself." The shrine maiden suggested. "It's just that the duration of the healing time will be hard on you in a party of one. It's always better to be accompanied by someone in the cave."

Macchi swallowed once again. "I'll talk to him."

* * *

Walking was hard when it hurt so much, but she managed to seat herself next to the pond in the back of the shrine. It was night, and the stars were blinking back at her. 

Hao, almost reading her mind, walked up next to her, leaning over the red sidewall rail. "I don't want to die either, you know."

"I know." She whispered, trying to keep her eyes off him. "I don't want to live a miserable life, nor do I want to die. It's kind of a rhetorical thing." She smiled. "I shouldn't have taken this job."

"Life in Heaven is easy, isn't it?"

"Not really." She shook her head. "Everyone expects so much from you, because all angels are supposed to be promising. I was never that. I'm a brat, I was always a brat; people ended up giving up on me because I refused to listen. My mom didn't want me to take the job, but I didn't listen to her either."

"Regret?"

"No, now that I thought about it." She turned to grin at him. "It's okay. I can't regret it because I got to meet everyone. I saw Redseb and Seyram playing outside of the temple, and suddenly, everything was worth it. Then there's you."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You're okay. I'm not gonna make you go." Macchi giggled. "But I will. Life's too short for me, so I'm willing to take the risk."

"I'll go with you."

"Thanks?" Macchi almost smiled to herself.

**TBC**

Yes, they took Lyserg. It was to be expect, no? (Is attacked by screaming readers)

"_There are things you can only succeed when pushed towards a limit."_ Is a direct quote said by Anna from the anime. I thought it fitted in here rather nicely?

Adepts. I've been playing too much Golden Sun, that's where it came from. What else can I say? Oh, yes. I lied. I promised the next update to be at the end of June. It is now the beginning of August, and I have just updated. Tisk, you should've known enough not to believe in my untrustworthy promises, right? XD

Pino, Eliza, Faust, and some other people will come in the next chapter. Then, it's the waterfall cave for them. DUN dun dun. What? People dig melodramatic-ness.

Until then, I'm Chiharu. And you're reading **Worlds Apart**.

Someone please review so I'll update sooner?


End file.
